Remove multiple duplicate characters from string

Question

I have strings like this one:

$str = 'This -----is a bbbb test';

How can I remove all duplicate characters if it occurs more than 3 times?

So, for example, the string above must look as follows:

'This is a  test';

user142162 · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-13 23:07:01Z

7

$new_str = preg_replace('/(.)\1{3,}/', '', $str);

answered Apr 13, 2012 at 23:07

user142162

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1 Comment

Hm, this doesn't work. I use different regex which does the trick: preg_replace('{([^\w])\1+}','',$str);

dan-lee · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-13 23:07:56Z

1

$t = preg_replace('/(\S)\1{3,}/', '', $t);

Every non-space longer than 3 chars will be replaced with nothing

answered Apr 13, 2012 at 23:07

dan-lee

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