I have a text file that has multiple tabs between entries and I need to get rid of all but one, and therefore have a common delimeter, such as "\t" so when I parse this file into a MySQL database it will not add any blank spots where there should be a data entry.

Any help is appreciated, this is for a case study program, not homework. Here is a sample line entry from the text file that is being parsed:

These are the heading variables where I want the text entry to be put into, I have a program that actually inserts the text file into the database, but there are problems when there are extra tabs or whitespace inside an entry. 
'$id_num','$firstname','$lastname','$grade','$grad','$addr','$city','$
+state','$zip','$phone','$dob','$sex','$id_num2'

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Here is a dummy entry:<br>
1415        John             Doe                                      
+10    2004    1380 SE 8TH AVE                   ANYTOWN              
+          OR    90210        5556611    11/16/85    M            1415

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In reply to parsing text file by Anonymous Monk

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