Excel LTRIM VBA Function: Trim Off Leading Spaces in Data

The Excel LTrim VBA function is important to use when you are working with data derived from locations where there could be leading spaces.  This could prevent you from identifying the content of the variable successfully.

This function is simple to use, see the example below.

Dim FindtheText As String
Dim Lookingatstring As String
FindTheText = LTrim(Lookingatstring)
'For this example, pretend the LookingatString = " Testing" with 2 spaces in the beginning
'FindTheText will now equal "Testing" without the 2 leading spaces

If you had an IF statement that was looking for an exact match such as “Testing” and you did not use the LTRIM method, the logic would not identify the string as “Testing” but as “  Testing” and not perform the appropriate logic.