How to Trim Whitespace from a Bash Variable in a More Elegant Way

In bash scripting, you might often encounter situations where you need to trim whitespace from a variable. This can include removing leading, trailing, or even internal spaces. While there are multiple ways to approach this problem using tools like sed or awk, a more efficient and elegant method can be achieved using bash built-in features. Let’s walk through different examples to see how you can handle this common problem in various scenarios.

Problem Overview

Consider a situation where you’re working with a variable that contains extra spaces, such as:

var="   this is a test   "

Read more »