# Deleting blank characters

The FTRIM routine is easy to use, along with a tJava component, to delete blank characters from the start of a string:

```
System.out.println(StringHandling.FTRIM("  Hello world  !"));
```

The routine returns the string with the blank characters removed from the beginning.

![The result is "Hello world !" in the Run view.](https://help.qlik.com/talend/en-US/studio-user-guide/Resources/images/Routines6_d.png)