Matching horizontal white space

[Magnus.Moraberg]

multipleSpaces = re.compile(u'\\h+')

importantTextString = '\n \n \n \t\t '
importantTextString = multipleSpaces.sub("M", importantTextString)

I would have expected consecutive spaces and tabs to be replaced by M
but nothing is being replaced. If I try the following, then I'm left
only with M, as expected -

multipleSpaces = re.compile(u'\\s+') # both vertical and horizontal

importantTextString = '\n \n \n \t\t '
importantTextString = multipleSpaces.sub("M", importantTextString)


What I eventually wish to do is have only single spaces in my text and
to only have single carriage returns -

" one two three four

five


six

"

becoming -

"one two three four
five
six
"

Thanks,

Barry

 

[Fredrik Lundh]

multipleSpaces = re.compile(u'\\h+')

importantTextString = '\n \n \n \t\t '
importantTextString = multipleSpaces.sub("M", importantTextString)

what's "\\h" supposed to mean?

I would have expected consecutive spaces and tabs to be replaced by M
but nothing is being replaced.

if you know what you want to replace, be explicit:

>>> importantTextString = '\n \n \n \t\t '
>>> re.compile("[\t ]+").sub("M", importantTextString)

'\nM\nM\nM'

</F>

 

[John Machin]

what's "\\h" supposed to mean?

Match *h*orizontal whitespace, I guess ... looks like the maintainer
of the re equivalent in some other language has far too much spare
time