Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!usenet.pasdenom.info!aioe.org!feeder.news-service.com!de-l.enfer-du-nord.net!feeder1.enfer-du-nord.net!talisker.lacave.net!lacave.net!not-for-mail From: Joel VanderWerf Newsgroups: comp.lang.ruby Subject: Re: Replace any multiple whitespaces with single white space Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:51:59 -0500 Organization: Service de news de lacave.net Lines: 22 Message-ID: <4DB5C2CA.3070705@gmail.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: bristol.highgroove.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: talisker.lacave.net 1303757543 90972 65.111.164.187 (25 Apr 2011 18:52:23 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@lacave.net NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:52:23 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: X-Received-From: This message has been automatically forwarded from the ruby-talk mailing list by a gateway at comp.lang.ruby. If it is SPAM, it did not originate at comp.lang.ruby. Please report the original sender, and not us. Thanks! For more details about this gateway, please visit: http://blog.grayproductions.net/categories/the_gateway X-Mail-Count: 382157 X-Ml-Name: ruby-talk X-Rubymirror: Yes X-Ruby-Talk: <4DB5C2CA.3070705@gmail.com> Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.ruby:3470 On 04/25/2011 11:44 AM, Michelle Pace wrote: > Hello, I need to make the first string below into the second string. > That is, only single white spaces are permitted. > > "1/4 WELDING LEVER FRONT DRW 14844-C MAT WMA1CM-WLFRONT" > into > "1/4 WELDING LEVER FRONT DRW 14844-C MAT WMA1CM-WLFRONT" > > > > I want to use the sub! method. Why does the below code not work? Is my > pattern incorrect? > > descrip = "1/4 WELDING LEVER FRONT DRW 14844-C MAT WMA1CM-WLFRONT" > descrip.sub!(/\s+/,' ') > puts descrip sub! only affects the *first* match. You can substitute globally with gsub. Also you might as well only match 2 or more spaces: descrip.gsub!(/\s\s+/,' ')