CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptjquery
P.Brian.Mackey
P.Brian.Mackey

Reputation: 44285

Javascript - How to remove all extra spacing between words

How can I remove all extra space between words in a string literal?

"some    value"

Should become

"some value"

Also, 

"    This    should  become   something          else   too . "

Becomes

"This should become something else too ."

Do not worry about moving the .. Just as above is fine. I know I can use $.trim(str) to achieve the trailing/ending space removal. But, I'm not sure how to do the 1 space between words trick.

Upvotes: 63

Views: 82559

Answers (8)

Design.Garden
Design.Garden

Reputation: 4247

For my case, I had to combine other answers and add the /m modifier for a multiline string, resulting in:

string.replace(/^[ \s\t]*| +(?= )/gm, '')


let string = `
    I  want
    all   the extra
    spaces removed.
^                    
`;

console.log(string.replace(/^[ \s\t]*| +(?= )/gm, ''))

Upvotes: 0

V-SHY
V-SHY

Reputation: 4125

In case we want to avoid the replace function with regex,

We can achieve same result by 

str.split(' ').filter(s => s).join(' ')
// var str = "    This    should  become   something          else   too . ";
// result is "This should become something else too ."

First, split the original string with space, then we will have empty string and words in an array. Second, filter to remain only words, then join all words with a whitespace.

Upvotes: 12

Narendra Yadala
Narendra Yadala

Reputation: 9664

var str = "    This    should  become   something          else   too . "
$.trim(str).replace(/\s(?=\s)/g,'')

This uses lookahead to replace multiple spaces with a single space.

Upvotes: 4

Rob W
Rob W

Reputation: 349222

var string = "    This    should  become   something          else   too . ";
string = string.replace(/\s+/g, " ");

This code replaces a consecutive set of whitespace characters (\s+) by a single white space. Note that a white-space character also includes tab and newlines. Replace \s by a space if you only want to replace spaces.

If you also want to remove the whitespace at the beginning and end, include:

string = string.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, "");

This line removes all white-space characters at the beginning (^) and end ($). The g at the end of the RegExp means: global, ie match and replace all occurences.

Upvotes: 116

Brian
Brian

Reputation: 4984

jsFiddle Example

"    This    should  become   something          else   too . ".replace(/[\s\t]+/g,' ');

Upvotes: 3

Ivan
Ivan

Reputation: 2262

var str = 'some    value';
str.replace(/\s\s+/g, ' ');

Upvotes: 0

Matt Ball
Matt Ball

Reputation: 359986

Another (perhaps easier to understand) regexp replacement that will do the trick:

var input = /* whatever */;
input = input.replace(/ +/g, ' ');

The regexp matches one or more spaces, so the .replace() call replaces every single or repeated space with a single space.

Upvotes: 2

James Hill
James Hill

Reputation: 61872

var str = "    This    should  become   something          else   too . ";
str = str.replace(/ +(?= )/g,'');

Here's a working fiddle.

Upvotes: 22

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