On 04/25/2011 11:44 AM, Michelle Pace wrote:
> Hello, I need to make the first string below into the second string.
> That is, only single white spaces are permitted.
>
> "1/4 WELDING    LEVER FRONT DRW 14844-C  MAT  WMA1CM-WLFRONT"
> into
> "1/4 WELDING LEVER FRONT DRW 14844-C MAT WMA1CM-WLFRONT"
>
>
>
> I want to use the sub! method. Why does the below code not work? Is my
> pattern incorrect?
>
> descrip = "1/4 WELDING    LEVER FRONT DRW 14844-C  MAT  WMA1CM-WLFRONT"
> descrip.sub!(/\s+/,' ')
> puts descrip

sub! only affects the *first* match. You can substitute globally with 
gsub. Also you might as well only match 2 or more spaces:

descrip.gsub!(/\s\s+/,' ')