#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use feature 'say';

sub trim {
   my ($str) = @_;
   $str =~ s/^\s+|\s+$//g;
   return $str;
}

my $test = ' sample ';

say 'Before (trim):';
say $test;
say trim($test);

say 'Without (trim):';
say $test;
$test =~ s/^\s+|\s+$//g;
say $test;

__END__

$ perl test.pl
Before (trim):
 sample
sample
Without (trim):
 sample
sample