Removing extra spaces and or hyphens

[shawnblc]

I'm trying to remove all extra spaces and hyphens. In the field there should only be allowed one space between words or one hyphen, but never both and never more than one.

I'm currently doing something like this, more it doesn't catch everything. What's a better way than this elementary way?

Code: Select all

   replace "   " with "-" in gFilename
   replace "  " with "-" in gFilename
   replace " " with "-" in gFilename
   replace "--" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "---" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "----" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "-----" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "------" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "-------" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "--------" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "---------" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "----------" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "-----------" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "------------" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "-------------" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "--------------" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "---------------" with "-" in gFilename
   replace "----------------" with "-" in gFilename

[bn]

What I do is:

Code: Select all

   put the length of gFileName into tLength
   repeat
      replace "  " with " " in gFileName
      if the length of gFileName = tLength then
         exit repeat
      end if
      put the length  of gFileName into tLength
   end repeat
   
   put the length of gFileName into tLength
   repeat
      replace "--" with "-" in gFileName
      if the length of gFileName = tLength then
         exit repeat
      end if
      put the length  of gFileName into tLength
      
      -- gFileName should be alright now
   end repeat

Kind regards
Bernd

[Thierry]

What I do is:

What I do is:

Code: Select all

put replaceText( yourInputText, "([ ]+|-+)", "-")

ans slighty faster as it doesn't replace single hyphen:

Code: Select all

put replaceText(someText, "([ ]+|--+)", "-")

As usual, different ways...

Regards,

Thierry

[dunbarx]

Bernd does something like what I did a long while ago. Given a field with excess spaces, and a fld 2 to receive the output:

Code: Select all

on mouseUp
   get fld 1 --field contains all those extra spaces
   repeat until "  " is not in it
      replace "  " with space in it
   end repeat
   put it into fld 2
end mouseUp

Same for any char. In my old handler, I cycled through a list of such recalcitrant chars:

Code: Select all

on mouseUp
   get fld 1 --field contains all those extra spaces
   repeat until "  " is not in it
      replace "  " with space in it
   end repeat
   
   repeat until "--" is not in it
      replace "--" with "-" in it
   end repeat
   
   --etc.
   
   put it into fld 2
end mouseUp

Craig

[dunbarx]

By the way, I always trust Thierry's regex expertise. I just rarely understand it.

Craig

[bn]

Hallo Thierry,

???

using the code snippet of shawn regex gives

-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename
-replace-"-"-with-"-"-in-gFilename

versus

replace " " with "-" in gFilename
replace " " with "-" in gFilename
replace " " with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename
replace "-" with "-" in gFilename

I even upgraded BBEdit to have the regex playground. I am trying to get there...

Kind regards
Bernd

[Thierry]

Hallo Thierry,

???

I even upgraded BBEdit to have the regex playground. I am trying to get there...

Wow, Bernd jumping in! Congratulations.

Actually, I misread the OP,
so to only replace double or more spaces, change this part:

Code: Select all

[ ]+

with:

Code: Select all

 [ ][ ]+

Better?

Thierry

[Thierry]

By the way, I always trust Thierry's regex expertise.

Thank you!

I just rarely understand it.

So do I

Thierry

[shawnblc]

Thanks everyone. Working like a charm.

What I do is:

What I do is:

Code: Select all

put replaceText( yourInputText, "([ ]+|-+)", "-")

ans slighty faster as it doesn't replace single hyphen:

Code: Select all

put replaceText(someText, "([ ]+|--+)", "-")

As usual, different ways...

Regards,

Thierry