def lstrip(a, chars=None):
a_arr = numpy.asarray(a)<EOL>return _vec_string(a_arr, a_arr.dtype, '<STR_LIT>', (chars,))<EOL>
For each element in `a`, return a copy with the leading characters
removed.

Calls `str.lstrip` element-wise.

Parameters
----------
a : array-like, {str, unicode}
    Input array.

chars : {str, unicode}, optional
    The `chars` argument is a string specifying the set of
    characters to be removed. If omitted or None, the `chars`
    argument defaults to removing whitespace. The `chars` argument
    is not a prefix; rather, all combinations of its values are
    stripped.

Returns
-------
out : ndarray, {str, unicode}
    Output array of str or unicode, depending on input type

See also
--------
str.lstrip

Examples
--------
>>> c = np.array(['aAaAaA', '  aA  ', 'abBABba'])
>>> c
array(['aAaAaA', '  aA  ', 'abBABba'],
    dtype='|S7')

The 'a' variable is unstripped from c[1] because whitespace leading.

>>> np.char.lstrip(c, 'a')
array(['AaAaA', '  aA  ', 'bBABba'],
    dtype='|S7')


>>> np.char.lstrip(c, 'A') # leaves c unchanged
array(['aAaAaA', '  aA  ', 'abBABba'],
    dtype='|S7')
>>> (np.char.lstrip(c, ' ') == np.char.lstrip(c, '')).all()
... # XXX: is this a regression? this line now returns False
... # np.char.lstrip(c,'') does not modify c at all.
True
>>> (np.char.lstrip(c, ' ') == np.char.lstrip(c, None)).all()
True