The .strip() method in Python is used to remove leading and trailing characters from a string. It's a versatile method with various applications for string manipulation.
Example:
data = " Hello, world! " # String with leading and trailing spaces
stripped_data = data.strip()
print(stripped_data) # Output: "Hello, world!" (whitespace removed)
Or
data = "**Hello, world!**" # String with leading and trailing asterisks
stripped_data = data.strip("*")
print(stripped_data) # Output: "Hello, world!" (asterisks removed)