Python String lstrip() Method

Strips characters from the left end of a string

Usage

The lstrip() method removes whitespace from the beginning (leading) of the string by default.

By adding chars parameter, you can also specify the characters you want to strip.

string.lstrip(chars)

Python string lstrip() method parameters
Parameter	Condition	Description
chars	optional	A list of characters to be removed from the string

The method return a copy of the string with the specified characters removed from the beginning of the string.

By default, the method removes leading whitespace.

S = '   Hello, World!   '
x = S.lstrip()
print(x)

# Prints Hello, World!

Newline '\n', tab '\t' and carriage return '\r' are also considered as whitespace characters.

S = ' \t\n\r Hello, World!    '
x = S.lstrip()
print(x)

# Prints Hello, World!

By adding chars parameter, you can also specify the character you want to strip.

# Strip single character 'a'
S = 'aaaaab'
x = S.lstrip('a')
print(x)

# Prints b

The chars parameter is not a prefix; rather, all combinations of its values are stripped.

In below example, strip() would strip all the characters provided in the argument i.e. ‘h’, ‘w’, ‘t’, ‘p’, ‘:’, ‘/’ and ‘.’

S = 'http://www.example.com'
x = S.lstrip('hwtp:/.')
print(x)

# Prints example.com

Characters are removed from the leading end until reaching a string character that is not contained in the set of characters in chars.

S = 'xxxxSxxxxSxxxx'
x = S.lstrip('x')
print(x)

# Prints SxxxxSxxxx

Here is another example:

S = '... - Version 3.2 Model-32'
x = S.lstrip('.- ')
print(x)

# Prints Version 3.2 Model-32