Re: How to remove \n between two words but retain one space

Something like this will do it.

my $str = "George         
     
                  Best
";

$str =~ s/(?<=[[:alpha:]])(?:\s\s+|[^\S ]+)(?=[[:alpha:]])/ /g;

print "'$str'\n";
[download]

(update: took off the pointless "s" from the s///) That might be more complicated (someone else might have a better one?) ~~that~~ than you need but I think it's good and will also fix things like--

my $str = "George" . \n ."Best";

It will not fix leading and trailing spaces. Just spacing between alpha characters.

Comment on Re: How to remove \n between two words but retain one space Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: How to remove \n between two words but retain one space by JediWizard (Deacon) on Nov 27, 2005 at 04:01 UTC
I believe that: `s/(?<=[[:alpha:]])\s+(?=[[:alpha:]])/ /g;` [download] Will have the same effect as your posted expression. Although it will replace a single space character between two letters with a single space character (essentially a no-op), because it is a simpler pattern will actually take less time to execute. Below I am posting a simple benchmark I used to test this theory. If I have missed something please enlighten me. #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w use strict; use Benchmark; my(@tests) = <DATA>; timethese(400, {his => sub{ s/(?<=[[:alpha:]])(?:\s\s+\|[^\S ]+)(?=[[:a +lpha:]])/ /g foreach(@tests); }, mine => sub{s/(?<=[[:alpha:]])\s+(?=[[:alpha:]])/ /g f +oreach(@tests); }}); __DATA__ A sting with weird A string without weird Another variety with more wierd Anotherthingwithnospaces something odd soemthing normal [me@mylinux]$ ./space.pl Benchmark: timing 400 iterations of his, mine... his: 0 wallclock secs ( 0.07 usr + 0.00 sys = 0.07 CPU) @ 57 +14.29/s (n=400) (warning: too few iterations for a reliable count) mine: 0 wallclock secs ( 0.03 usr + 0.00 sys = 0.03 CPU) @ 13 +333.33/s (n=400) (warning: too few iterations for a reliable count) [download] They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. —Andy Warhol	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: How to remove \n between two words but retain one space by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Nov 27, 2005 at 06:19 UTC
You're right. I was trying to be overly correct I think in avoiding replacing " " with " "; it slows down the works considerably so it's not the way to go for this.	[reply]