Remove whitespace from a string in C#?

Question

Any one know how to remove excessive whitespace from a string?

For example:

string myString = "I          am going to work.";

Anyone know a good script for doing this kind of trimming?

the answer seems to be here: dotnetperls.com/remove-whitespace — Matt Ellen
– Matt Ellen, Commented Apr 2, 2011 at 22:11
How should a space, followed by a linefeed, and another space be handled? — Lasse V. Karlsen
– Lasse V. Karlsen, Commented Apr 2, 2011 at 22:12
@Matt Thats what I get for reading too fast. I saw this and assumed it only handled single spaces. Thanks. — Edward
– Edward, Commented Apr 2, 2011 at 22:14

joce · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-02 22:16:08Z

14

Regex.Replace(myString, @"\s+", " ") would do it.

answered Apr 2, 2011 at 22:16

joce

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1 Comment

Edward Over a year ago

Wow nice. I know there's alot of ways of doing this, but this is the shortest one by far. Thanks.

Mark Sowul · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-02 22:17:21Z

2

Regex.Replace(myString, @"\s+", " ") ought to do it.

edited Apr 2, 2011 at 22:17

answered Apr 2, 2011 at 22:12

Mark Sowul

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2 Comments

joce Over a year ago

I think this will entirely nuke the multiple whitespaces, leading to "Iam going to work." for the given example. I think Regex.Replace(myString, @"\s+", " "); would lead to the right answer.

configurator Over a year ago

Even if you set a minimum, your answer would produce wrong results.

user447356 · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-02 22:11:31Z

1

I used to have:

while (myString.IndexOf("  ") >= 0)
   myString = myString.Replace("  ", " ");

Probably there's more elegant way, but it works.

answered Apr 2, 2011 at 22:11

user447356

1 Comment

user447356 Over a year ago

@jlafay nope, just ordinary spaces.

Homam · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-03 08:06:24Z

1

I prefer using Regular expressions, but this is just another suggestion.

string.Join(" ", myString.Split(' ').Where(p => p != string.Empty));

Or

string.Join(" ", myString.Split(new[] {' '}
               , StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries));

Good luck!

edited Apr 3, 2011 at 8:06

answered Apr 2, 2011 at 23:15

Homam

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1 Comment

Richard Neil Ilagan Over a year ago

... or maybe use StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries with your string.Split()? :D

amehmood · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-09 02:43:48Z

Different methods and which is the fastest if you have 100000 iterations to do.

Code:

        Stopwatch sw = new Stopwatch();
        var maxIterations = 100000;

        Console.WriteLine(@"Removing Whitespace from string: "" 1m ir1 11 22 11 a3 bc 9"" with Total {0}x iterations ", maxIterations);
        Console.WriteLine("\nReplace Operations");
        sw.Start();
        var str = " 1m ir1 11 22 11 a3 bc 9";
        for (int i = 1; i <= maxIterations; i++)
        {
            str = " 1m ir1 11 22 11 a3 bc 9";

            str = str.Replace(" ", ""); ;
        }
        sw.Stop();

        Console.WriteLine("Finalstring: " + str);
        Console.WriteLine("Elapsed time: " + sw.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + " Milliseconds");

        sw.Reset();

        //list for and if 
        Console.WriteLine("\nList Operations:");
        sw.Start();
        var str2 = " 1m ir1 11 22 11 a3 bc 9";
        var listOfchars = new List<char>();
        for (int i = 1; i <= maxIterations; i++)
        {
            str2 = " 1m ir1 11 22 11 a3 bc 9";
            for (int j = 0; j < str2.Length; j++)
            {
                if (!(char.IsWhiteSpace(str2[j])))
                    listOfchars.Add(str2[j]);
            }
            str2 = new string(listOfchars.ToArray());
            listOfchars.Clear();
        }
        sw.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine("Finalstring: " + str2);
        Console.WriteLine("Elapsed time: " + sw.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + " Milliseconds");

        sw.Reset();
        //LINQ
        Console.WriteLine("\nLINQ Operations");

        sw.Start();
        var str1 = " 1m ir1 11 22 11 a3 bc 9";
        for (int i = 1; i <= maxIterations; i++)
        {
            str1 = " 1m ir1 11 22 11 a3 bc 9";
            str1 = String.Concat(str1.Where(c => !Char.IsWhiteSpace(c))); ;
        }
        sw.Stop();

        Console.WriteLine("Finalstring: " + str1);
        Console.WriteLine("Elapsed time: " + sw.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + " Milliseconds");

        //Regex
        sw.Reset();

        Console.WriteLine("\nRegex Operations");

        sw.Start();
        var str3 = " 1m ir1 11 22 11 a3 bc 9";
        for (int i = 1; i <= maxIterations; i++)
        {
            str3 = " 1m ir1 11 22 11 a3 bc 9";
            str3 = Regex.Replace(str3, @"\s+", "");
        }
        sw.Stop();

        Console.WriteLine("Finalstring: " + str3);
        Console.WriteLine("Elapsed time: " + sw.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + " Milliseconds");

Here are the Results:

Removing Whitespace from string: " 1m ir1 11 22 11 a3 bc 9" with Total 100000x iterations

Replace Operations
Finalstring: 1mir1112211a3bc9
Elapsed time: 12,394 Milliseconds

List Operations:
Finalstring: 1mir1112211a3bc9
Elapsed time: 29,8071 Milliseconds

LINQ Operations
Finalstring: 1mir1112211a3bc9
Elapsed time: 62,175 Milliseconds

Regex Operations
Finalstring: 1mir1112211a3bc9
Elapsed time: 271,7953 Milliseconds

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