使用gsub或delete。区别在于gsub可以删除制表符，而delete不能。有时文件中确实有编辑器添加的选项卡。

a = "\tI have some whitespaces.\t"
a.gsub!(/\s/, '')  #=>  "Ihavesomewhitespaces."
a.gsub!(/ /, '')   #=>  "\tIhavesomewhitespaces.\t"
a.delete!(" ")     #=>  "\tIhavesomewhitespaces.\t"
a.delete!("/\s/")  #=>  "\tIhavesomewhitespaces.\t"
a.delete!('/\s/')  #=>  using single quote is unexpected, and you'll get "\tI have ome whitepace.\t"

对于完全匹配PHP trim的行为，最简单的方法是使用String#strip方法，如下所示:

string = "  Many have tried; many have failed!    "
puts "Original [#{string}]:#{string.length}"
new_string = string.strip
puts "Updated  [#{new_string}]:#{new_string.length}"

Ruby也有一个就地编辑的版本，叫做String.strip!(注意后面的“!”)。这不需要创建字符串的副本，并且对于某些用途可以显著地更快:

string = "  Many have tried; many have failed!    "
puts "Original [#{string}]:#{string.length}"
string.strip!
puts "Updated  [#{string}]:#{string.length}"

两个版本都会产生如下输出:

Original [  Many have tried; many have failed!    ]:40
Updated  [Many have tried; many have failed!]:34

我创建了一个基准测试性能的一些基本用途的长条和长条!，以及一些替代方案。测试是这样的:

require 'benchmark'

string = 'asdfghjkl'
Times = 25_000

a = Times.times.map {|n| spaces = ' ' * (1+n/4); "#{spaces}#{spaces}#{string}#{spaces}" }
b = Times.times.map {|n| spaces = ' ' * (1+n/4); "#{spaces}#{spaces}#{string}#{spaces}" }
c = Times.times.map {|n| spaces = ' ' * (1+n/4); "#{spaces}#{spaces}#{string}#{spaces}" }
d = Times.times.map {|n| spaces = ' ' * (1+n/4); "#{spaces}#{spaces}#{string}#{spaces}" }

puts RUBY_DESCRIPTION
puts "============================================================"
puts "Running tests for trimming strings"

Benchmark.bm(20) do |x|
  x.report("s.strip:")                 { a.each {|s| s = s.strip } }
  x.report("s.rstrip.lstrip:")         { a.each {|s| s = s.rstrip.lstrip } }
  x.report("s.gsub:")                  { a.each {|s| s = s.gsub(/^\s+|\s+$/, "") } }
  x.report("s.sub.sub:")               { a.each {|s| s = s.sub(/^\s+/, "").sub(/\s+$/, "") } }

  x.report("s.strip!")                 { a.each {|s| s.strip! } }
  x.report("s.rstrip!.lstrip!:")       { b.each {|s| s.rstrip! ; s.lstrip! } }
  x.report("s.gsub!:")                 { c.each {|s| s.gsub!(/^\s+|\s+$/, "") } }
  x.report("s.sub!.sub!:")             { d.each {|s| s.sub!(/^\s+/, "") ; s.sub!(/\s+$/, "") } }
end

结果如下:

ruby 2.2.5p319 (2016-04-26 revision 54774) [x86_64-darwin14]
============================================================
Running tests for trimming strings
                           user     system      total        real
s.strip:               2.690000   0.320000   3.010000 (  4.048079)
s.rstrip.lstrip:       2.790000   0.060000   2.850000 (  3.110281)
s.gsub:               13.060000   5.800000  18.860000 ( 19.264533)
s.sub.sub:             9.880000   4.910000  14.790000 ( 14.945006)
s.strip!               2.750000   0.080000   2.830000 (  2.960402)
s.rstrip!.lstrip!:     2.670000   0.320000   2.990000 (  3.221094)
s.gsub!:              13.410000   6.490000  19.900000 ( 20.392547)
s.sub!.sub!:          10.260000   5.680000  15.940000 ( 16.411131)

别忘了:

$ s = "   I have white space   ".split
=> ["I", "have", "white", "space"]

Ruby的.strip方法执行与trim()相当的PHP功能。

删除所有空白:

"  leading    trailing   ".squeeze(' ').strip
=> "leading trailing"

@塔斯让我意识到我原来的答案连续删除重复的字母-恶心!从那以后，我改用了压缩方法，如果使用Rails框架，这种方法对这种情况更聪明。

require 'active_support/all'
"  leading    trailing   ".squish
=> "leading trailing"

"  good    men   ".squish
=> "good men"

引用:http://apidock.com/rails/String/squish

Ruby的String的.scan()和.join()方法也可以帮助克服字符串中的空白。

扫描(\ w + /)。Join将删除所有空格并连接字符串

string = "White spaces in me".scan(/\w+/).join
=>"Whitespacesinme"

它还从字符串的左右部分删除空格。表示ltrim, rtrim和trim。以防万一有人有C, FoxPro或Visual Basic的背景，然后跳到Ruby。

2.1.6:002 > string = " White spaces in me ".scan(/\w+/).join = > " Whitespacesinme " 2.1.6:003 > string = " White spaces in me".scan(/\w+/).join = > " Whitespacesinme " 2.1.6:004 > string = "White spaces in me ".scan(/\w+/).join = > " Whitespacesinme " 2.1.6:005 >

你可以试试这个:

"ab c d efg hi ".split.map(&:strip)

为了得到这个:

["ab, "c", "d", "efg", "hi"]

或者如果你想要一个字符串，只需使用:

"ab c d efg hi ".split.join