正则表达式用一个字符替换两个字符的出现。

Question

I am trying to implement a regular expression that will replace the occurrence of two or more characters with one. but I didn't know to do this.

this is my string

   example--of---string.

I need a regular expression that will give me output like this

  example-of-string.

Is this is possible in regular expression, preg_replace in php.

or I need to access the elements though array and check for next character and skip if it is -

Please advise me

Answer 1

Regular Expression

(.)\1+

This will pick up any occurrence of the same character repeated more than twice. Not just dashes.

Replacement String

\1

Online demo

http://regex101.com/r/rF3bK5

Answer 2

<?php
$string = 'example--of---string.';
$new_string = preg_replace('/-+/', '-', $string);
echo $new_string;
?>

Answer 3

Use this regex:

/-{1,}/g

Replace with:

-

Demo: http://regex101.com/r/uV1qZ7