Close, just drop the \s? and it works.

$ perl -E '$s="2 0 1 2 - 7 - 2 7  9 : 3 7 : 3 1"; $s =~ s/\s\s?(\S)/$1
+/g; say $s'
2012-7-279:37:31

$ perl -E '$s="2 0 1 2 - 7 - 2 7  9 : 3 7 : 3 1"; $s =~ s/\s(\S)/$1/g;
+ say $s'
2012-7-27 9:37:31

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In reply to Re^2: Removing extra spaces by Anonymous Monk
in thread Removing extra spaces by rickoy

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