# Cloudflare Rules Gets trim() Functions: Say Goodbye to Stray Whitespace!

Good work today, it's Shii-chan! Here is a small but handy update for rule expressions!

## What was announced?

The Cloudflare Changelog announced three new functions in Cloudflare Rules for removing surrounding bytes. You can use them to remove whitespace before comparing request values.

- `trim()`: removes bytes from both ends
- `trim_start()`: removes bytes from the start
- `trim_end()`: removes bytes from the end

All HTTP products support them, on all plans.

## What changes

If a header value has stray whitespace, an `eq` comparison can fail. Trimming first makes the comparison reliable. When you write rules, you no longer need extra conditions to handle leading or trailing whitespace!

## Dive Deep

Here is how they behave.

- By default, they remove ASCII whitespace
- An optional constant string lets you specify a custom set of bytes
- If the input value is nil, they return nil

The example in the source trims the `x-label` header value before comparing it.

```txt
trim(http.request.headers["x-label"][0]) eq "approved"
```

The details are in each function's reference page.

## Wrap-up

- `trim()`, `trim_start()`, and `trim_end()` are added to Rules
- ASCII whitespace is removed by default, and a constant string sets the bytes to remove
- A nil input returns nil
- Available on all plans across all HTTP products

This is for anyone writing rules that compare header or other request values strictly!