php Replacing multiple spaces with a single space

Question

I'm trying to replace multiple spaces with a single space. When I use ereg_replace, I get an error about it being deprecated.

ereg_replace("[ \t\n\r]+", " ", $string);

Is there an identical replacement for it. I need to replace multiple " " white spaces and multiple nbsp white spaces with a single white space.

Answer 1

Use preg_replace() and instead of [ \t\n\r] use \s:

$output = preg_replace('!\s+!', ' ', $input);

From Regular Expression Basic Syntax Reference:

\d, \w and \s

Shorthand character classes matching digits, word characters (letters, digits, and underscores), and whitespace (spaces, tabs, and line breaks). Can be used inside and outside character classes.

Answer 2

preg_replace("/[[:blank:]]+/"," ",$input)

Answer 3

Great tip, thanks guys.