Use Regex to Replace Spaces In a Table Column

SpannerHead — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 18:04:54 GMT

I have a table column that contains a variable quantity of spaces in each cell. I want to collapse those to a single space. I presume regex can eliminate those but I've never applied regex outside a column formula. Is this even the best approach and if so, how do I achieve it?

Re: Use Regex to Replace Spaces In a Table Column

jthi — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 18:20:46 GMT

Collapse Whitespace() is basically meant for this (you can also use other methods)

Names Default To Here(1);

mystr = "a         b";

res1 = Regex(mystr, " +", " ", GLOBALREPLACE);

res2 = Concat Items(Words(mystr, " "), " ");

res3 = Collapse Whitespace(mystr);

show(res1, res2, res3);

Recode has Collapse Whitespace so you can just use that

and it will provide you with a script

// Recode column: Column 6
Local({dt},
	dt = Data Table("Big Class");
	dt << Begin Data Update;
	For Each Row(dt, dt:Column 6[] = Collapse Whitespace(dt:Column 6));
	dt << End Data Update;
);

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Use Regex to Replace Spaces In a Table Column

Re: Use Regex to Replace Spaces In a Table Column