Eliminate Spaces from Character String

[hefterr]

Hi,
Does anyone have a simple routine/function to eliminate all but 1 space between "words" (consectutive charactives with no spaces).

For example, I'd like to convert the string (I've used '.' as a "space":

"This...has....too..many...spaces" to
"This.has.too.many.spaces".

I need this to compare inputed character strings where a user may have hit the space bar an extra time or 2.

Thanks in advance.

[tclaremont]

Look up the REREPLACE function. It sounds like what you want to do is replace all instances of a double space with a single space.

You also might consider using the TRIM function on your inputted fields to elimiate leading and trailing spaces.

[Dan_Bracuk]

while(yourstring contains " ")
yourstring = replace(yourstring, " ", " ", "all");

[hefterr]

Thanks Dan. This looks good.
Can I use ...
<cfloop condition="mystring contains " ""> Not sure about the quotes for 2 spaces
<cfset mystring = replace(mystring, " ", " ", all> replace 2 spaces with 1 space
</cfloop>

[Newsgroup_User · Accepted solution]

hefterr wrote:
> Thanks Dan. This looks good.
> Can I use ...
> <cfloop condition="mystring contains " ""> Not sure about the quotes for 2
> spaces

You need to alternate quotes when nesting them like that... Take your pick.

<cfloop condition="myString Contains ' '">
OR
<cfloop condition='myString Contains " "'>

[Stressed_Simon]

Dear God please don't use a loop to solve this. Just use RegEx, reReplace(yourString, "\s+", " ", "ALL").

So much easier and cleaner!

[hefterr]

Hi Stressed,
I tried both and actually went your way using :

<cfset s = rereplace(s, "[[:space:]]{2,}", " ","all")>
Is this the same regex as yours - I'm not well versed in regex's?

[Stressed_Simon]

That is cool, your regex is essentially the same! Regex is brilliant, I hope you enjoy getting versed! 😄