TRIM

Quirk found

Category: Text · Last tested 2026-08-06

Real, executed compatibility results for the TRIM function across Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice Calc — verified by actually running it. Syntax and links to each vendor’s official documentation are below.

Support matrix

Engine	Documented	Live-tested	Verdict
Excel	Yes	Not yet	n/a
Google Sheets	Yes	Not yet	n/a
LibreOffice Calc	Yes	Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-08-06)	Quirk found

LibreOffice version history

We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when TRIM’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.

LibreOffice version	Verdict	Tested
24.2.0.3	Quirk found	2026-07-19
24.8.7.2	Quirk found	2026-07-19
25.2.0.3	Quirk found	2026-07-24
25.8.7.3	Quirk found	2026-08-06

Why isn't TRIM working in LibreOffice?

TRIM exists in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3, but it is not a drop-in match for Excel — our executed tests found real behavioral differences (detailed in the test results on this page). If a formula that works in Excel or Google Sheets misbehaves in LibreOffice, compare your usage against the failing cases above before assuming your data is wrong.

Discovered quirks

=TRIM(CHAR(160)&"Hello"&CHAR(160)) on LibreOffice Calc returned �Hello�, but the documented/expected result is Hello . Microsoft docs state explicitly: "by itself, the TRIM function does not remove the nonbreaking space character (which has a decimal value of 160 and is commonly used in web pages as the HTML entity )." Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/trim-function-410388fa-c5df-49c6-b16c-9e5630b479f9; MISMATCH vs expected: expected '\xa0Hello\xa0', got '�Hello�'

Executed test cases

LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-08-06)

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=TRIM(" Hello World ")	Leading/trailing spaces are stripped and multiple interior spaces collapse to a single space	Hello World	Hello World	Matched
=TRIM(CHAR(9)&"Hello")	TRIM only removes the regular ASCII space character (decimal 32); it does NOT remove other whitespace such as a tab (CHAR(9)), so the leading tab survives untouched	Hello	Hello Microsoft docs: "the TRIM function was designed to trim the 7-bit ASCII space character (value 32) from text" -- it does not generalize to other whitespace. Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/trim-function-410388fa-c5df-49c6-b16c-9e5630b479f9	Matched
=TRIM(CHAR(160)&"Hello"&CHAR(160))	TRIM does not remove the non-breaking space character (CHAR(160), HTML  ) even though it renders as whitespace -- a real, documented, and easy-to-miss cross-engine divergence point since data pasted from web pages is full of CHAR(160)	�Hello�	Hello Microsoft docs state explicitly: "by itself, the TRIM function does not remove the nonbreaking space character (which has a decimal value of 160 and is commonly used in web pages as the HTML entity )." Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/trim-function-410388fa-c5df-49c6-b16c-9e5630b479f9	Mismatch
=TRIM("No Extra Spaces")	A string with only single spaces between words passes through unchanged	No Extra Spaces	No Extra Spaces	Matched