Hi i'm the poster, basically there are 2 types of things i want to fix...

First Case:

"(pretend there are 10 or so white spaces) some input(pretend there are 5 or so white spaces)"

I want it to be:
"some input"
and also

Second Case:

" (pretend this is a lot of white spaces) "
I want this to be:
"(pretend this has no spaces in it)"


also as a side note can you explain to me what does =~ s/^\s+/ /; means I don't get this at all, I am trying to transfer from C++ thats why I have so much trouble. Thanks again guys, you guys are the best.