另一个选择:

>>> import re
>>> str = 'this is a            string with    multiple spaces and    tabs'
>>> str = re.sub('[ \t]+' , ' ', str)
>>> print str
this is a string with multiple spaces and tabs

>>> import re
>>> re.sub(' +', ' ', 'The     quick brown    fox')
'The quick brown fox'

类似于前面的解决方案，但更具体:用一个空格替换两个或多个空格:

>>> import re
>>> s = "The   fox jumped   over    the log."
>>> re.sub('\s{2,}', ' ', s)
'The fox jumped over the log.'

令人惊讶的是，没有人发布一个简单的函数，它会比所有其他发布的解决方案快得多。是这样的:

def compactSpaces(s):
    os = ""
    for c in s:
        if c != " " or (os and os[-1] != " "):
            os += c 
    return os

def unPretty(S):
   # Given a dictionary, JSON, list, float, int, or even a string...
   # return a string stripped of CR, LF replaced by space, with multiple spaces reduced to one.
   return ' '.join(str(S).replace('\n', ' ').replace('\r', '').split())

string = 'This is a             string full of spaces          and taps'
string = string.split(' ')
while '' in string:
    string.remove('')
string = ' '.join(string)
print(string)

结果:

这是一个充满空格和点击的字符串