Trim First and Last Characters

Remove the first character, the last character, or both from every line in a text block.

It is useful for stripping quotes, brackets, wrappers, and simple markers from line-based data where each row follows the same pattern.

Each line is processed independently, which makes it a fast cleanup step for copied arrays, tagged values, and exported fields.

Input (Multi-line text)

Output (Processed text)

Options

Remove the first and last character from each lineRemove the first character from each lineRemove the last character from each line

Actions

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of line cleanup is this tool designed for?: Use it when every line has an unwanted wrapper character at the start, the end, or both sides.; This is common with quoted strings, bracketed values, simple tags, copied arrays, and line-based exports where each row follows the same pattern.; Paste the text, choose which edge to trim, and click Remove Characters to process every line in one pass.
How are lines processed here?: Each line is handled independently, so the first or last character is removed from every line rather than from the full text as one block.; Remove first and last character trims both boundaries of each non-empty line.; The single-edge modes change only one side, which is helpful when data has a prefix marker or suffix marker but not both.
What happens with empty lines and one-character lines?: Empty lines stay empty, because there is nothing to remove.; A one-character line becomes empty after any removal mode that touches that side.; This is useful to know when your source contains markers such as '[' or ']' on their own lines.
Which edge cases should I review after trimming?: The tool removes exactly one character per selected side on each pass, so doubled wrappers such as '[[value]]' will need another run if you want to strip both layers.; If some rows do not follow the same pattern, trimming by position may remove meaningful characters from those exceptions.; Large pasted files still process locally in the browser and may take slightly longer on older devices.
How is this different from Remove Numbers from Text?: Trim First and Last Characters removes content by position on each line.; Remove Numbers from Text removes digit-based patterns or numbered prefixes based on what the characters are, not where they sit.; Choose this page when the unwanted characters are fixed at the boundaries of each line.