JAVASCRIPT
Normalize Whitespace in Strings with Regex
Learn to clean up user input or textual data by compressing multiple spaces into single spaces and trimming leading/trailing whitespace using a simple JavaScript Regex.
function normalizeWhitespace(text) {
// Replace multiple whitespace characters (including newlines, tabs) with a single space
// Then trim leading/trailing whitespace
return text.replace(/\s+/g, ' ').trim();
}
const messyText = " This is a
sentence with excessive whitespace. ";
const cleanText = normalizeWhitespace(messyText);
console.log(cleanText);
// Expected Output: This is a sentence with excessive whitespace.
How it works: This JavaScript function normalizes whitespace in a string. It uses the regex `/\s+/g` to match one or more (`+`) whitespace characters (`\s`, which includes spaces, tabs, newlines). All matched sequences are replaced with a single space. Finally, `trim()` removes any leading or trailing whitespace that might remain.