str.isspace()

Added in v3.x · Updated March 13, 2026 · String Methods

string methods stdlib

The .isspace() method returns True if all characters in the string are whitespace characters and the string contains at least one character. Otherwise, it returns False.

Syntax

str.isspace()

This method does not take any parameters.

Return Value

Returns a boolean:

True — every character is a whitespace character and the string is not empty
False — otherwise

Whitespace Characters

Python considers these characters as whitespace:

Character	Description
Space `' '`	Regular space
Tab `'\t'`	Horizontal tab
Newline `'\n'`	Line feed
Vertical tab `'\v'`	Vertical tab
Form feed `'\f'`	Form feed
Carriage return `'\r'`	Carriage return

Examples

Basic Usage

>>> "hello".isspace()
False
>>> "   ".isspace()
True
>>> "".isspace()
False

With Different Whitespace Characters

>>> "\t\n".isspace()
True
>>> "  \t  \n  ".isspace()
True
>>> "hello world".isspace()
False

Practical Use Case

Checking if a string contains only whitespace is useful for input validation:

def process_input(user_input):
    if not user_input.isspace():
        return user_input.strip()
    return None

>>> process_input("  ")
None
>>> process_input("hello")
'hello'
>>> process_input("   hello   ")
'hello'

Distinguishing from `.strip()`

>>> s = "   "
>>> s.isspace()
True
>>> len(s) > 0
True

>>> s = ""
>>> s.isspace()
False
>>> len(s) > 0
False

The key difference: an empty string returns False for .isspace() but True after .strip() produces an empty string.

.isprintable() — returns True if all characters are printable
.isalpha() — returns True if all characters are alphabetic
.isalnum() — returns True if all characters are alphanumeric
.strip() — removes leading and trailing whitespace
.splitlines() — splits on line boundaries