Java’s string trim routine tests for whitespace using Character.isWhitespace and so does Clojure’s clojure.string/trim.

While processing a dataset off the web containing unicode space characters, the trim routine failed to do anything useful. Luckily, a StackOverflow thread suggested using a routine from Google’s guava library. So in Clojure, you can do this:

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(.trimFrom CharMatcher/WHITESPACE %)

and this will do the job.