How to replace repeated instances of a character with a single instance of that character in python

Question

I want to replace repeated instances of the \"*\" character within a string with a single instance of \"*\". For example if the string is \"*

Answer 1

I'd suggest using the re module sub function:

import re

result = re.sub("\*+", "*", "***abc**de*fg******h")

I highly recommend reading through the article about RE and good practices. They can be tricky if you're not familiar with them. In practice, using raw strings is a good idea.