text = " a string of some sort, with space at either end   "
text = text.strip()

##</code><code>##

my $text = " a string of some sort, with space at either end   ";
$text = trim( $text );

##</code><code>##

my $TRIM_WHITESPACE_RE = qr/^\s+|\s+$/
## ... later on .. ##
$text =~ s/$TRIME_WHITESPACE_RE//g;