MySQL : how to remove double or more spaces from a string?

Question

I couldn\'t find this question for MySQL so here it is:

I need to trim all double or more spaces in a string to 1 single space.

For example: \"The  

Answer 1

After searching I end up writing a function i.e

drop function if exists trim_spaces;

delimiter $$

CREATE DEFINER=`root`@`localhost` FUNCTION `trim_spaces`(`dirty_string` text, `trimChar` varchar(1))
    RETURNS text
    LANGUAGE SQL
    NOT DETERMINISTIC
    CONTAINS SQL
    SQL SECURITY DEFINER
    COMMENT ''
BEGIN
  declare cnt,len int(11) ;
  declare clean_string text;
  declare chr,lst varchar(1);

  set len=length(dirty_string);
  set cnt=1;  
  set clean_string='';

 while cnt <= len do
      set  chr=right(left(dirty_string,cnt),1);           

      if  chr <> trimChar OR (chr=trimChar AND lst <> trimChar ) then  
          set  clean_string =concat(clean_string,chr);
      set  lst=chr;     
     end if;

     set cnt=cnt+1;  
  end while;

  return clean_string;
END
$$
delimiter ;

USAGE:

set @str='------apple--------banana-------------orange---' ;

select trim_spaces( @str,'-')

output: apple-banana-orange-

parameter trimChar to function could by any character that is repeating and you want to remove .

Note it will keep first character in repeating set

cheers :)