---
page_title: trim function reference
description: |-
  The `trim` function removes the specified characters from the start and end of
  a given string. 
---

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> [!IMPORTANT]  
> **Documentation Update:** Product documentation previously located in `/website` has moved to the [`hashicorp/web-unified-docs`](https://github.com/hashicorp/web-unified-docs) repository, where all product documentation is now centralized. Please make contributions directly to `web-unified-docs`, since changes to `/website` in this repository will not appear on developer.hashicorp.com.
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# `trim` Function

`trim` removes the specified characters from the start and end of the given
string.

## Examples

```shell-session
> trim("?!hello?!", "!?")
hello
```

## Related Functions

- [`trimprefix`](/packer/docs/templates/hcl_templates/functions/string/trimprefix) removes a word from the start of a string.
- [`trimsuffix`](/packer/docs/templates/hcl_templates/functions/string/trimsuffix) removes a word from the end of a string.
- [`trimspace`](/packer/docs/templates/hcl_templates/functions/string/trimspace) removes all types of whitespace from
  both the start and the end of a string.