Returning String without Whitespace from Velocimacros

Hi,

I am new to using Apache Velocity. What is the correct way of returning a string from a Macro or a Velocimacro? 

Since I did not have a clue on how to return a string from a Macro, I decided to do something like 
#macro(query_url $query_param) q=$query_param #end 

I can then call the Macro using: #query_url("*")

The problem with this is that the resulting value contains a Tab or 
number of Spaces before the 'q=' when I call it. 


One option is to delete the spaces like: 
#macro(query_url $query_param)
       q=$query_param
#end 
This fixes my problem but is very hard to read.  To take this a step further consider: 
#macro(default_query_url) #if($request.params.get('q')) #query_url($request.params.get('q')) #else #query_url("*") #end #end 
Vs. 
#macro(default_query_url)
    #if($request.params.get('q'))
          #query_url($request.params.get('q'))
    #else
          #query_url("*")
#end 
In the first case there is no whitespace, but editing it would be very difficult for more complicated macros. 

I am curious what is the correct way to return values from Velocimacros and if I can Trim the resulting Whitespace before returning it?

Thank you an advance for any help.
O. O.