RTRIM

Description

The RTRIM function is used to remove consecutive spaces or specified strings from the right side (trailing) of a string. If the second parameter is not specified, trailing spaces are removed; if specified, the function removes the specified complete string from the right side.

Syntax

RTRIM(<str>[, <rhs>])

Parameters

Parameter	Description
<str>	The string to be processed. Type: VARCHAR
<rhs>	Optional parameter, trailing characters to be trimmed. Type: VARCHAR

Return Value

Returns a value of type VARCHAR.

Special cases:

• If any parameter is NULL, NULL is returned
• If rhs is not specified, removes trailing spaces
• If rhs is specified, removes the complete rhs string (not character-by-character)

Examples

1. Remove trailing spaces

SELECT rtrim('ab d   ') str;

+------+
| str  |
+------+
| ab d |
+------+

2. Remove specified trailing string

SELECT rtrim('ababccaab', 'ab') str;

+---------+
| str     |
+---------+
| ababcca |
+---------+

3. Default trim only removes ASCII space — RTRIM does not strip tabs (\t) or newlines (\n) without a second argument. Compare LENGTH before and after: only the single trailing ASCII space is stripped; \t\n stay.

SELECT LENGTH('hello world  \t\n '), LENGTH(RTRIM('hello world  \t\n '));

+------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| LENGTH('hello world  \t\n ') | LENGTH(RTRIM('hello world  \t\n ')) |
+------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
|                           16 |                                  15 |
+------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

4. UTF-8 character support

SELECT rtrim('ṭṛì ḍḍumai   ');

+---------------------------+
| rtrim('ṭṛì ḍḍumai   ')    |
+---------------------------+
| ṭṛì ḍḍumai                |
+---------------------------+

5. No matching suffix, return original string

SELECT rtrim('Hello World', 'xyz');

+---------------------------------+
| rtrim('Hello World', 'xyz')     |
+---------------------------------+
| Hello World                     |
+---------------------------------+

6. NULL value handling

SELECT rtrim(NULL), rtrim('Hello', NULL);

+-------------+------------------------+
| rtrim(NULL) | rtrim('Hello', NULL)   |
+-------------+------------------------+
| NULL        | NULL                   |
+-------------+------------------------+

7. Empty string handling

SELECT rtrim(''), rtrim('abc', '');

+-----------+-------------------+
| rtrim('') | rtrim('abc', '')  |
+-----------+-------------------+
|           | abc               |
+-----------+-------------------+

8. Repeated trailing pattern removal

SELECT rtrim('abcabcabc', 'abc');

+-------------------------------+
| rtrim('abcabcabc', 'abc')     |
+-------------------------------+
|                               |
+-------------------------------+

9. Multiple occurrences, remove only trailing match

SELECT rtrim('HelloHelloWorld', 'Hello');

+---------------------------------------+
| rtrim('HelloHelloWorld', 'Hello')     |
+---------------------------------------+
| HelloHelloWorld                       |
+---------------------------------------+

Keywords

RTRIM