trim

The trim function is mainly used to remove whitespace from the beginning and end of strings, although it can be used to remove other characters too.

PHP

echo trim("  Hello World  ");
=> // 'Hello World'

Ruby

puts "  Hello World  ".strip
=> # 'Hello World'

The trim() function can also take a second argument which allows the removal of an arbitrary character.

PHP

echo trim("\n\nHello World\n\n", "\n");
=> // 'Hello World'

Ruby

substitute = '\n';
puts "\n\nHello World\n\n".gsub(/^[#{substitute}]+|[#{substitute}]+$/, '')
=> # 'Hello World'