Remove whitespaces that are not inside quotes

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Python Regular expression must strip whitespace except between quotes

I need to remove all whitespaces in a file that are not inside single or double quotes (i.e. not in a string).

I've found this solution Python Regular expression must strip whitespace except between quotes

but that works only for double quotes

What should happen if single quote is nested within double quote? — ATOzTOA, Jan 27 '13 at 15:05
Stack overflow works best when you ask questions about code you've written, rather than just asking for someone to write code for you. — Paul Hankin, Jan 27 '13 at 15:06
if single quotes are nested inside double quotes or double quotes are nested in single quotes the whitespaces must not be removed (in the entire string) — osiris81, Jan 27 '13 at 15:08

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 27 '13 at 16:14

4

Remove whitespace outside quotes:

import re

parts = re.split(r"""("[^"]*"|'[^']*')""", text)
parts[::2] = map(lambda s: "".join(s.split()), parts[::2]) # outside quotes
print("".join(parts))

answered Jan 27 '13 at 16:14

jfs

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Remove whitespaces that are not inside quotes

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