pyspark.sql.functions.ltrim#

pyspark.sql.functions.ltrim(col, trim=None)[source]#

Trim the spaces from left end for the specified string value.

New in version 1.5.0.

Changed in version 3.4.0: Supports Spark Connect.

Parameters

colColumn or column name: target column to work on.
trimColumn or column name, optional: The trim string characters to trim, the default value is a single space

New in version 4.0.0.

Returns

Column: left trimmed values.

See also

pyspark.sql.functions.trim()
pyspark.sql.functions.rtrim()

Examples

Example 1: Trim the spaces

>>> from pyspark.sql import functions as sf
>>> df = spark.createDataFrame(["   Spark", "Spark  ", " Spark"], "STRING")
>>> df.select("*", sf.ltrim("value")).show()
+--------+------------+
|   value|ltrim(value)|
+--------+------------+
|   Spark|       Spark|
| Spark  |     Spark  |
|   Spark|       Spark|
+--------+------------+

Example 2: Trim specified characters

>>> from pyspark.sql import functions as sf
>>> df = spark.createDataFrame(["***Spark", "Spark**", "*Spark"], "STRING")
>>> df.select("*", sf.ltrim("value", sf.lit("*"))).show()
+--------+--------------------------+
|   value|TRIM(LEADING * FROM value)|
+--------+--------------------------+
|***Spark|                     Spark|
| Spark**|                   Spark**|
|  *Spark|                     Spark|
+--------+--------------------------+

Example 3: Trim a column containing different characters

>>> from pyspark.sql import functions as sf
>>> df = spark.createDataFrame([("**Spark*", "*"), ("==Spark=", "=")], ["value", "t"])
>>> df.select("*", sf.ltrim("value", "t")).show()
+--------+---+--------------------------+
|   value|  t|TRIM(LEADING t FROM value)|
+--------+---+--------------------------+
|**Spark*|  *|                    Spark*|
|==Spark=|  =|                    Spark=|
+--------+---+--------------------------+