just some thoughts

utils/helpers.cpp

@@ -4,12 +4,18 @@
 #include "helpers.h"
 
 #include "iostream"
+#include <algorithm>
+#include <functional>
 
 #include "config.h"
 
 static bool installed = false;
 static std::filesystem::path sPath;
 
+bool isSpace(char ch){
+    return std::isspace(static_cast<unsigned char>(ch));
+}
+
 void setAbsoluteSharedPath () {
     installed = true;
     sPath = FULL_DATA_DIR "/" PROJECT_NAME;             // should be something like /usr/share/pica or /local/usr/share/pica
@@ -36,7 +42,7 @@ void initPaths(const char* programPath) {
     if (endsWith(parent.string(), BIN_DIR)) {       //this is the case when the program is installed somewhere but not system root
         std::filesystem::path bin(BIN_DIR);         //so it will read from something like ../share/pica/ relative to the binary
         for (const auto& hop : bin) {
-            (void)hop;                              //I do this just to make as many ups as many members are in bin
+            UNUSED(hop);                            //I do this just to make as many ups as many members are in bin
             parent = parent.parent_path();
         }
         sPath = parent / DATA_DIR / PROJECT_NAME;
@@ -59,3 +65,40 @@ bool endsWith(const std::string& string, const std::string& query) {
         return false;
     }
 }
+
+void ltrim(std::string& string) {
+    string.erase(
+        string.begin(),
+        std::find_if(
+            string.begin(),
+            string.end(),
+            std::not_fn(isSpace)
+        )
+    );
+}
+
+void rtrim(std::string& string) {
+    string.erase(
+        std::find_if(
+            string.rbegin(),
+            string.rend(),
+            std::not_fn(isSpace)
+        ).base(),
+        string.end()
+    );
+}
+
+void trim(std::string& string) {
+    ltrim(string);
+    rtrim(string);
+}
+
+std::string extract(std::string& string, std::string::size_type begin, std::string::size_type end) {
+    std::string result = string.substr(begin, end);
+    if (end == std::string::npos)
+        string.erase(begin, end);
+    else
+        string.erase(begin, result.length() + 1);
+
+    return result;
+}

utils/helpers.h

@@ -6,7 +6,12 @@
 #include <filesystem>
 #include <string>
 
+#define UNUSED(variable) (void)variable
+
 void initPaths(const char* programPath);
 const std::filesystem::path& sharedPath();
 bool endsWith(const std::string& string, const std::string& query);
-
+void ltrim(std::string& string);
+void rtrim(std::string& string);
+void trim(std::string& string);
+std::string extract(std::string& string, std::string::size_type begin, std::string::size_type end);