Java how to replace 2 or more spaces with single space in string and delete leading and trailing spaces

Question

Looking for quick, simple way in Java to change this string

" hello     there   "

to something that looks like this

"hello there"

where I replace all those multiple spaces with a single space, except I also want the one or more spaces at the beginning of string to be gone.

Something like this gets me partly there

String mytext = " hello     there   ";
mytext = mytext.replaceAll("( )+", " ");

but not quite.

Answer 1

Try this:

String after = before.trim().replaceAll(" +", " ");

See also

• String.trim()
  • Returns a copy of the string, with leading and trailing whitespace omitted.
• regular-expressions.info/Repetition

---

No trim() regex

It's also possible to do this with just one replaceAll, but this is much less readable than the trim() solution. Nonetheless, it's provided here just to show what regex can do:

    String[] tests = {
        "  x  ",          // [x]
        "  1   2   3  ",  // [1 2 3]
        "",               // []
        "   ",            // []
    };
    for (String test : tests) {
        System.out.format("[%s]%n",
            test.replaceAll("^ +| +$|( )+", "$1")
        );
    }

There are 3 alternates:

• ^_+ : any sequence of spaces at the beginning of the string
  • Match and replace with $1, which captures the empty string
• _+$ : any sequence of spaces at the end of the string
  • Match and replace with $1, which captures the empty string
• (_)+ : any sequence of spaces that matches none of the above, meaning it's in the middle
  • Match and replace with $1, which captures a single space

See also

• regular-expressions.info/Anchors

Answer 2

You just need a:

replaceAll("\\s{2,}", " ").trim();

where you match one or more spaces and replace them with a single space and then trim whitespaces at the beginning and end (you could actually invert by first trimming and then matching to make the regex quicker as someone pointed out).

To test this out quickly try:

System.out.println(new String(" hello     there   ").trim().replaceAll("\\s{2,}", " "));

and it will return:

"hello there"

Answer 3

Use the Apache commons StringUtils.normalizeSpace(String str) method. See docs here

Answer 4

This worked perfectly for me : sValue = sValue.trim().replaceAll("\\s+", " ");

Answer 5

trim() method removes the leading and trailing spaces and using replaceAll("regex", "string to replace") method with regex "\s+" matches more than one space and will replace it with a single space

myText = myText.trim().replaceAll("\\s+"," ");

Answer 6

The following code will compact any whitespace between words and remove any at the string's beginning and end

String input = "\n\n\n  a     string with     many    spaces,    \n"+
               " a \t tab and a newline\n\n";
String output = input.trim().replaceAll("\\s+", " ");
System.out.println(output);

This will output a string with many spaces, a tab and a newline

Note that any non-printable characters including spaces, tabs and newlines will be compacted or removed

---

For more information see the respective documentation:

• String#trim() method
• String#replaceAll(String regex, String replacement) method
• For information about Java's regular expression implementation see the documentation of the Pattern class

Answer 7

"[ ]{2,}"

This will match more than one space.

String mytext = " hello     there   ";
//without trim -> " hello there"
//with trim -> "hello there"
mytext = mytext.trim().replaceAll("[ ]{2,}", " ");
System.out.println(mytext);

OUTPUT:

hello there

Answer 8

To eliminate spaces at the beginning and at the end of the String, use String#trim() method. And then use your mytext.replaceAll("( )+", " ").

Answer 9

You can first use String.trim(), and then apply the regex replace command on the result.

Answer 10

Try this one.

Sample Code

String str = " hello     there   ";
System.out.println(str.replaceAll("( +)"," ").trim());

OUTPUT

hello there

First it will replace all the spaces with single space. Than we have to supposed to do trim String because Starting of the String and End of the String it will replace the all space with single space if String has spaces at Starting of the String and End of the String So we need to trim them. Than you get your desired String.

Answer 11

String blogName = "how to   do    in  java   .         com"; 
 
String nameWithProperSpacing = blogName.replaceAll("\\\s+", " ");

Answer 12

trim()

Removes only the leading & trailing spaces.

From Java Doc, "Returns a string whose value is this string, with any leading and trailing whitespace removed."

System.out.println(" D ev  Dum my ".trim());

"D ev Dum my"

replace(), replaceAll()

Replaces all the empty strings in the word,

System.out.println(" D ev  Dum my ".replace(" ",""));

System.out.println(" D ev  Dum my ".replaceAll(" ",""));

System.out.println(" D ev  Dum my ".replaceAll("\\s+",""));

Output:

"DevDummy"

"DevDummy"

"DevDummy"

Note: "\s+" is the regular expression similar to the empty space character.

Reference : https://www.codedjava.com/2018/06/replace-all-spaces-in-string-trim.html

Answer 13

In Kotlin it would look like this

val input = "\n\n\n  a     string with     many    spaces,    \n"
val cleanedInput = input.trim().replace(Regex("(\\s)+"), " ")

Answer 14

A lot of correct answers been provided so far and I see lot of upvotes. However, the mentioned ways will work but not really optimized or not really readable. I recently came across the solution which every developer will like.

String nameWithProperSpacing = StringUtils.normalizeSpace( stringWithLotOfSpaces );

You are done. This is readable solution.

Answer 15

You could use lookarounds also.

test.replaceAll("^ +| +$|(?<= ) ", "");

OR

test.replaceAll("^ +| +$| (?= )", "")

<space>(?= ) matches a space character which is followed by another space character. So in consecutive spaces, it would match all the spaces except the last because it isn't followed by a space character. This leaving you a single space for consecutive spaces after the removal operation.

Example:

    String[] tests = {
            "  x  ",          // [x]
            "  1   2   3  ",  // [1 2 3]
            "",               // []
            "   ",            // []
        };
        for (String test : tests) {
            System.out.format("[%s]%n",
                test.replaceAll("^ +| +$| (?= )", "")
            );
        }

Answer 16

String str = " hello world"

reduce spaces first

str = str.trim().replaceAll(" +", " ");

capitalize the first letter and lowercase everything else

str = str.substring(0,1).toUpperCase() +str.substring(1,str.length()).toLowerCase();

Answer 17

See String.replaceAll.

Use the regex "\s" and replace with " ".

Then use String.trim.

Answer 18

you should do it like this

String mytext = " hello     there   ";
mytext = mytext.replaceAll("( +)", " ");

put + inside round brackets.

Answer 19

String str = "  this is string   ";
str = str.replaceAll("\\s+", " ").trim();

Answer 20

This worked for me

scan= filter(scan, " [\\s]+", " ");
scan= sac.trim();

where filter is following function and scan is the input string:

public String filter(String scan, String regex, String replace) {
    StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();

    Pattern pt = Pattern.compile(regex);
    Matcher m = pt.matcher(scan);

    while (m.find()) {
        m.appendReplacement(sb, replace);
    }

    m.appendTail(sb);

    return sb.toString();
}

Answer 21

The simplest method for removing white space anywhere in the string.

 public String removeWhiteSpaces(String returnString){
    returnString = returnString.trim().replaceAll("^ +| +$|( )+", " ");
    return returnString;
}

Answer 22

check this...

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String s = "A B  C   D    E F      G\tH I\rJ\nK\tL";
    System.out.println("Current      : "+s);
    System.out.println("Single Space : "+singleSpace(s));
    System.out.println("Space  count : "+spaceCount(s));
    System.out.format("Replace  all = %s", s.replaceAll("\\s+", ""));

    // Example where it uses the most.
    String s = "My name is yashwanth . M";
    String s2 = "My nameis yashwanth.M";

    System.out.println("Normal  : "+s.equals(s2));
    System.out.println("Replace : "+s.replaceAll("\\s+", "").equals(s2.replaceAll("\\s+", "")));

} 

If String contains only single-space then replace() will not-replace,

If spaces are more than one, Then replace() action performs and removes spacess.

public static String singleSpace(String str){
    return str.replaceAll("  +|   +|\t|\r|\n","");
}

To count the number of spaces in a String.

public static String spaceCount(String str){
    int i = 0;
    while(str.indexOf(" ") > -1){
      //str = str.replaceFirst(" ", ""+(i++));
        str = str.replaceFirst(Pattern.quote(" "), ""+(i++)); 
    }
    return str;
}

Pattern.quote("?") returns literal pattern String.

Answer 23

My method before I found the second answer using regex as a better solution. Maybe someone needs this code.

private String replaceMultipleSpacesFromString(String s){
    if(s.length() == 0 ) return "";

    int timesSpace = 0;
    String res = "";

    for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) {
        char c = s.charAt(i);

        if(c == ' '){
            timesSpace++;
            if(timesSpace < 2)
                res += c;
        }else{
            res += c;
            timesSpace = 0;
        }
    }

    return res.trim();
}

Answer 24

Stream version, filters spaces and tabs.

Stream.of(str.split("[ \\t]")).filter(s -> s.length() > 0).collect(Collectors.joining(" "))

Answer 25

I know replaceAll method is much easier but I wanted to post this as well.

public static String removeExtraSpace(String input) {
    input= input.trim();
    ArrayList <String> x= new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList(input.split("")));
    for(int i=0; i<x.size()-1;i++) {
        if(x.get(i).equals(" ") && x.get(i+1).equals(" ")) { 
            x.remove(i); 
            i--; 
        }
    }
    String word="";
    for(String each: x) 
        word+=each;
    return word;
}

Answer 26

String myText = "   Hello     World   ";
myText = myText.trim().replace(/ +(?= )/g,'');


// Output: "Hello World"

Answer 27

string.replaceAll("\s+", " ");

Answer 28

If you already use Guava (v. 19+) in your project you may want to use this:

CharMatcher.whitespace().trimAndCollapseFrom(input, ' ');

or, if you need to remove exactly SPACE symbol ( or U+0020, see more whitespaces) use:

CharMatcher.anyOf(" ").trimAndCollapseFrom(input, ' ');

Answer 29

public class RemoveExtraSpacesEfficient {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        String s = "my    name is    mr    space ";

        char[] charArray = s.toCharArray();

        char prev = s.charAt(0);

        for (int i = 0; i < charArray.length; i++) {
            char cur = charArray[i];
            if (cur == ' ' && prev == ' ') {

            } else {
                System.out.print(cur);
            }
            prev = cur;
        }
    }
}

The above solution is the algorithm with the complexity of O(n) without using any java function.

Answer 30

Please use below code

package com.myjava.string;

import java.util.StringTokenizer;

public class MyStrRemoveMultSpaces {

    public static void main(String a[]){

        String str = "String    With Multiple      Spaces";

        StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(str, " ");

        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();

        while(st.hasMoreElements()){
            sb.append(st.nextElement()).append(" ");
        }

        System.out.println(sb.toString().trim());
    }
}

Answer 31

Hello sorry for the delay! Here is the best and the most efficiency answer that you are looking for:

import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public class MyPatternReplace {

public String replaceWithPattern(String str,String replace){

    Pattern ptn = Pattern.compile("\\s+");
    Matcher mtch = ptn.matcher(str);
    return mtch.replaceAll(replace);
}

public static void main(String a[]){
    String str = "My    name    is  kingkon.  ";
    MyPatternReplace mpr = new MyPatternReplace();
    System.out.println(mpr.replaceWithPattern(str, " "));
}

So your output of this example will be: My name is kingkon.

However this method will remove also the "\n" that your string may has. So if you do not want that just use this simple method:

while (str.contains("  ")){  //2 spaces
str = str.replace("  ", " "); //(2 spaces, 1 space) 
}

And if you want to strip the leading and trailing spaces too just add:

str = str.trim();

Answer 32

String Tokenizer can be used

 String str = "  hello    there  ";
            StringTokenizer stknzr = new StringTokenizer(str, " ");
            StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
            while(stknzr.hasMoreElements())
            {
                sb.append(stknzr.nextElement()).append(" ");
            }
            System.out.println(sb.toString().trim());