Does anyone have a better way to do this? Thanks. 

use strict;
my $name = '  John F. Doe  ';
print "($name)\n";

# Get rid of leading and trailing blanks
$name =~ s/^\s*(.*\S|$)\s*$/$1/m;
print "($name)\n";

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In reply to Strip leading and trailing blanks by Anonymous Monk

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