To remove leading, trailing, and repeated spaces in data, analysts use the ____ function.

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Multiple Choice

To remove leading, trailing, and repeated spaces in data, analysts use the ____ function.

Cleaning whitespace in text is the focus here. The trim function is the best choice because it targets whitespace at the edges of a string and, in common data-cleaning contexts (like spreadsheets), also collapses runs of spaces inside text so there’s a single space between words. This addresses both removing leading and trailing spaces and reducing repeated internal spaces in one step, which is exactly what you want for clean, comparable data. The other options don’t fit as well: remove isn’t a standard data-cleaning operation; clean typically removes non-printable characters rather than normal whitespace; strip usually handles only leading and trailing whitespace without guaranteeing the reduction of internal repeated spaces, depending on the tool.

Cleaning whitespace in text is the focus here. The trim function is the best choice because it targets whitespace at the edges of a string and, in common data-cleaning contexts (like spreadsheets), also collapses runs of spaces inside text so there’s a single space between words. This addresses both removing leading and trailing spaces and reducing repeated internal spaces in one step, which is exactly what you want for clean, comparable data.

The other options don’t fit as well: remove isn’t a standard data-cleaning operation; clean typically removes non-printable characters rather than normal whitespace; strip usually handles only leading and trailing whitespace without guaranteeing the reduction of internal repeated spaces, depending on the tool.

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