Pandas str.strip()

The str.strip() method in Pandas is used to remove leading and trailing whitespace in a Series.

Example

import pandas as pd

# create a Series
data = pd.Series(['  hello  ', ' world ', '   pandas   '])

# remove trailing and leading whitespaces using str.strip() trimmed_data = data.str.strip()
print(trimmed_data) ''' Output 0 hello 1 world 2 pandas dtype: object '''

str.strip() Syntax

The syntax of the str.strip() method in Pandas is:

Series.str.strip(to_strip=None)

str.strip() Argument

The str.strip() method takes the following argument:

  • to_strip (optional) - the string specifying the set of characters to be removed.

str.strip() Return Value

The str.strip() method returns a Series of strings with the specified characters removed from both ends.


Example1: Remove Whitespace Using str.strip()

import pandas as pd

# create a Series with leading and trailing whitespaces
data = pd.Series(['   apple   ', '  banana  ', '   cherry  '])

# remove trailing and leading whitespaces using str.strip() trimmed_data = data.str.strip()
print(trimmed_data)

Output

0     apple
1    banana
2    cherry
dtype: object

Here, data.str.strip() is used in the data Series to remove the leading and trailing whitespaces from the string in the data Series.


Example 2: Remove Specific Characters

import pandas as pd

# create a Series with strings surrounded by asterisks
data = pd.Series(['*hello*', '**world**', '***pandas***'])

# use str.strip to remove asterisks (*) # from the beginning and end of each string trimmed_data = data.str.strip(to_strip='*')
print(trimmed_data)

Output

0     hello
1     world
2    pandas
dtype: object

In the above example, we have used the str.strip(to_strip='*') method to remove asterisks * from the beginning and end of each string in the data Series.

Here, the to_strip argument is set to *, which specifies the character to be removed.