LTRIM

The LTRIM function removes Start of change any of the specified characters End of change from the beginning of an expression.

Start of change The LTRIM function removes all of the characters that are contained in trim-expression from the beginning of string-expression. The collating sequence does not affect the search. If the string-expression is defined as FOR BIT DATA or is a binary data type, the search is done by comparing each byte in trim-expression to the byte at the beginning of string-expression. End of change

string-expression

An expression that returns a value of any built-in numeric, Start of change

datetime,

or string data type. A numeric or datetime argument is cast to a character string before evaluating the function.¹ For more information about converting numeric Start of change

or datetime End of change

to a character string, see VARCHAR.

trim-expression

An expression that specifies the characters to remove from the beginning of string-expression. The expression must return a value of any built-in numeric, datetime, or string data type. A numeric or datetime argument is cast to a character string before evaluating the function.

When trim-expression is not specified, the data type of the string-expression determines the default value used:

Hexadecimal zero (X'00') if the argument is a binary string.
DBCS blank if the argument is a DBCS graphic string.
UTF-16 or UCS-2 blank if the first argument is a Unicode graphic string.
UTF-8 blank if the first argument is a UTF-8 character string.
Otherwise, a SBCS blank.

Start of change The value for string-expression and the value for trim-expression must have compatible data types. For more information about data type compatibility, see Assignments and comparisons. If string-expression and trim-expression have different CCSIDs, trim-expression is converted to the CCSID of string-expression. End of change

The data type of the result depends on the data type of string-expression:

Data type of string-expression	Data type of the Result
CHAR or VARCHAR	VARCHAR
CLOB	CLOB
GRAPHIC or VARGRAPHIC	VARGRAPHIC
DBCLOB	DBCLOB
BINARY or VARBINARY	VARBINARY
BLOB	BLOB

The length attribute of the result is the same as the length attribute of string-expression. Start of change The actual length of the result for character or binary strings is the length of string-expression minus the number of bytes removed. The actual length of the result for graphic strings is the length of string-expression minus the number of graphic characters removed. End of change If all characters are removed, the result is an empty string.

Start of change If either argument can be null, the result can be null; if any argument is null, the result is the null value. End of change

The CCSID of the result is the same as that of string-expression.

Examples

Example 1: Use the LTRIM function when the host variable HELLO is defined as CHAR(9) and has a value of
```
 '    Hello'
```
```
  VALUES LTRIM(:HELLO)
```
The result is 'Hello'. When a trim-expression is not specified only blanks are removed.

Example 2: Use the LTRIM function to remove individual numbers in the trim-expression from the beginning (left side) of the string-expression.

SELECT LTRIM ('123DEFG123', '321'),
			 LTRIM ('12DEFG123', '321'),
			 LTRIM ('123123222XYZ22', '123'),
			 LTRIM ('12321', '213'),
			 LTRIM ('XYX123 ', '321')
   FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1

The result is:

 'DEFG123'
 'DEFG123'
 'XYZ22'
 '' (an empty string - all characters removed)
 'XYX123' (no characters removed)

The LTRIM function does not remove instances of '1', '2', and '3' on the right side of the string, following characters that are not '1', '2', or '3'.

Example 3: Use the LTRIM function to remove the characters specified in the trim-expression from the beginning of the string-expression.
```
  VALUES LTRIM(('...$V..$AR', '$.'))
```
The result is 'V..$AR'. The function stops when it encounters a character not in the trim-expression.
Example 4: Use the LTRIM function to remove the characters specified in the trim-expression from the beginning of the string-expression.
```
  VALUES LTRIM('[[ -78]]', '- []')
```
The result is '78]]'. When removing characters and blanks, you must include a blank in the trim-expression.

¹ The LTRIM function with one argument returns the same results as: STRIP(string-expression,LEADING)