Excel Rtrim VBA Function: Trim Off Trailing Spaces in Data

The Excel RTrim function is important to use when you are working with data derived from locations where there could be trailing 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 = RTrim(Lookingatstring)

'For this example, pretend the LookingatString = "Testing " with 2 spaces at the end

'FindTheText will now equal "Testing" without the 2 trailing spaces

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