Replacing multiple spaces into just one? [duplicate]

Question

Okay, so I am working on this VB.NET program and I have tried using the .replace() to do this but it's not the best way to do this. I have a string with multiple spaces in between data which I don't want, what would be the best way to strip the spaces from the string but 1?

Answer 1

Here's a way using arrays, in case you'd prefer to avoid regular expressions.

Given this starting string:

Dim str As String = "This   is a test      string"

You can do this:

Dim arr As String() = str.Split({" "c}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
Dim compressedSpaces As String = String.Join(" ", arr)

You can also combine it onto one line:

Dim newString As String = String.Join(" ", str.Split({" "c}, 
    StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries))

Answer 2

Use a regular expression to match multiple spaces and replace with a single space:

s = Regex.Replace(s, " {2,}", " ")