What is the unix command to trim multiple spaces into single space?

manohare · 03-02-2009, 05:09 AM

Hi,
Can any one suggest the unix command which trims the multiple spaces into single space.

jschiwal · 03-02-2009, 05:15 AM

Code:

tr -s ' '

syg00 · 03-02-2009, 05:50 AM

Works for spaces (as was asked for), but I prefer to use something more generic, like "sed -r -i 's/\s+/ /g' <file>".

jschiwal · 03-02-2009, 06:17 AM

Tr is a basic and posix standard command. You could use '[[:space:]]' as a whitespace wild card character in tr or sed.
I think that \s is GNU specific. Next someone will chime in to use a perl command with even more arcane syntax.

pixellany · 03-02-2009, 07:25 AM

Code:

sed 's/ */ /g'

sed 's/[[:blank:]]*/ /g'  ##replaces whitespace (eg spaces or tabs)