# Re: Howto Delete 3 Leftmost Characters **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [July 31, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-howto-delete-3-leftmost-characters/100625 "2006-07-31T00:36:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-howto-delete-3-leftmost-characters/100625/1 "2006-07-31T00:36:03Z")
You can delete white spaces at the start and at the end of a string like this: string=" a long string " string1=string.sub(/^ +/,‘’) string2=string.sub(/ +$/,‘’) The ^ stands for eliminating things at the start, the + stands for eliminating 1 or more occurrences of a whitespace, and the $ stands for looking to the end of a string. I can’t comment on whether it’s the best way to learn about Regexp, but _[http://www.regular-expressions.info](http://www.regular-expressions.info)_ ([http://www.regular-expressions.info](http://www.regular-expressions.info)) has a special Ruby section. If you want to know it all, there is a book Mastering Regular Expressions by Jeffrey Friedl, published with O’Reilly … but maybe that’s too much for a start. Best regards, Axel