in reply to Changing quoted strings spanning more than one line

This is a bit simpler and produces the correct result from your sample. 

$_ = do{ local $/; <DATA> };
s[("[^\n"]+\n[^"]+")][ (my $x = $1) =~ s[\s+][ ]g; $x ]ge;
print;
"boom"
hello "" bill
"baz hello jock"
"boom2"
 abc "baz2 hello2 jock2 "

[download]
Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
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Re^2: Changing quoted strings spanning more than one line
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Sep 19, 2007 at 05:41 UTC

    Unfortunately, it fails with the new test data (see root node update above). To clarify, if you run it with: 

    hello "" bill
hello "  " bill

    [download]
    it produces: 
    hello "" bill hello "  " bill

    [download]
    when it should not alter the input data in this case.

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

      Tad more complicated: 

      $_ = do{ local $/; <DATA> };
s[("[^\n"]*?")|("[^\n"]+?\n[^"]+?")][ ##"
    $1 || do{ (my $x = $2) =~ s[\s+][ ]g; $x }
]ge;
print;
"boom"
hello "" bill
hello "  " bill
"baz hello jock"
"boom2"
 abc "baz2 hello2 jock2 "

      [download]
      Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
      "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
      In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
[reply]
[d/l]

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