in general, if it's unknown number, you can can use the ? or {} modifiers.. for example, any of the following would catch 1 or two spaces: 
/( |  )/
/  ?/
/ {1,2}/

[download]
Where x? matchs 0 or 1 x, and x{n,m} matches between n and m x's, inclusive. A couple general comments.. -- it's more robust (maybe not necessary for your task) to not use just a "." when the posible characters are known. for example, match "/20\d\d/" instead of "/200../" and "/^a-zA-Z{3} /" instead of "/^..../" (or even "/^(?:Mon|Tue) /" type of thing).

In reply to Re: pattern matching whitespace by davidrw
in thread pattern matching whitespace by tcf03

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