Replace multiple spaces by single space

Question

I am using php 7.1.8 and I am trying to use $output .= preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $output); to replace all spaces in a text that occur more than 1 time.

However, I get the following warning:

Warning: preg_replace(): No ending delimiter '+' found in C:\Users\admin\Desktop\Coding Projects\project\test.php on line 144

I only want to replace spaces. Is there a better way to do this?

I appreciate your replies!

The code sample as shown here can not trigger that warning. I'd hazard a guess and say that your test code was not what you've shown here. — mario, Sep 09 '18 at 07:22
Yet another "an apple is a duplicate of a motor engine!" not-a-dup question on Stack. — John, Dec 05 '20 at 10:34

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 09 '18 at 07:12

2

This will search through a string for any place where there is one or more spaces together and then replace it with just one space.

$output = preg_replace('/\s{1,}/', ' ', $output);

answered Sep 09 '18 at 07:12

Joseph_J

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But `\s{1,}` is equivalent to `\s+`. So doesn't explain OPs error. – mario Sep 09 '18 at 07:21

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 09 '18 at 07:16

Probably the problem is because you are concatenating the output and preg return must be assigned to a variable. Yo can try to use:

$var_out = preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $output);
//and than concatenate to 
$output .= $var_out

or just because you are using php you can also use the str_replace() function like this:

$output .= str_replace(' ', ' ', $output);

hope it helps.

Replace multiple spaces by single space

2 Answers2