Yes, you can use functions:

$value="    kkkk.123  ";
for ( $i=0; $i<length($value); $i++ ) {
    if ( substr($value,$i,1) eq " " ) {
        substr($value,$i,1) = "";
        redo;
    } else {
        last;
    }
}
for ( $i=length($value)-1; $i>0; $i-- ) {
    if ( substr($value,$i,1) eq " " ) {
        $value = substr($value,0,$i);
    }
}
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but you will like to use the s/// operator, true? :-)