Using your own global substitution s!\s+! !g, but shortening everything else:

while (<DATA>) {
    next if !/^<item>/;
    s!\s+! !g;
    print "$_\n";
}
__DATA__
<item>sample   item text one


<item>sample item text two

<item>sample item  text three


<item>sample item text         four

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In reply to Re: formatting text by Narveson
in thread formatting text by texuser74

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


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