When combining values from multiple fields, the resulting string can sometimes contain extra spaces, as shown in the following example:

The string has an extra space between the first name and the last name because the first name value contains a space after the name, and the following expression inserts the second space:

To remove spaces from strings, use the BirtStr functions, trim( ), trimLeft( ), or trimRight( ). The trim( ) function removes both leading and trailing space characters, trimLeft( ) removes leading space characters, and trimRight( ) removes trailing space characters.

The following expression uses trim( ) to remove all leading and trailing spaces from both firstName and LastName fields: