Remove all spaces in string except spaces in quotes

[bnosam]

QString has what you want : http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-5/QString.html
You have to use Right, Left, IndexOf and LastIndexOf

Is there an easier way to do this, because potentially there could be many strings in it that I don't want the spaces removed from. I'm not even sure how to approach this.

Like:

@BEGIN:4; 17, 1;1, "This is some text right here.";  3;  18;1, "This is more text.";  3;  18;1, "Another set of text right here.";  3;  2; 5;11, LABEL;end;@LABEL:7, 1;8;end;@END

@BEGIN:4; 17, 1;1, "This is some text right here.";  3;  18;1, "This is more text.";  3;  18;1, "Another set of text right here.";  3;  2; 5;11, LABEL;end;@LABEL:7, 1;8;end;@END

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[anda_skoa]

There are several ways to approach this.

One way is to "parse" the input.You walk through the string in a loop.
If the loop body encouters a quote it toggles a quote flag. If it encounters a space and the quote flag is not on, it removes the space.

Another way, as Alundra, suggested, is to search for the quotes.
You search for the first quote starting at position 0. You can then use replace to remove all space from the string before that. Then you search for the next quote using the other's position +1 as a start. You append that substring directly into the result. Then you repeat with the remaining input string.

Cheers,
_

[jefftee]

Is there an easier way to do this, because potentially there could be many strings in it that I don't want the spaces removed from. I'm not even sure how to approach this.

Like:

@BEGIN:4; 17, 1;1, "This is some text right here.";  3;  18;1, "This is more text.";  3;  18;1, "Another set of text right here.";  3;  2; 5;11, LABEL;end;@LABEL:7, 1;8;end;@END

@BEGIN:4; 17, 1;1, "This is some text right here.";  3;  18;1, "This is more text.";  3;  18;1, "Another set of text right here.";  3;  2; 5;11, LABEL;end;@LABEL:7, 1;8;end;@END

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Here is one more version that uses regular expressions and removes the kludge used to skip over escaped quotes (the regex doesn't match on escaped quotes):

// remove spaces in string outside of quotes
 
    QString str = "@BEGIN:4; 17, 1;1, \"This is some text right here.\";  3;  18;1, \"This is more text.\";  3;  18;1, \"Another set of text right here.\";  3;  2; 5;11, LABEL;end;@LABEL:7, 1;8;end;@END";
    QString outstr;
 
    qDebug("....................................................................................................1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........");
    qDebug("..........1.........2.........3.........4.........5.........6.........7.........8.........9.........0.........1.........2.........3.........4.........5.........6.........7.........");
    qDebug("012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789");
    qDebug("%s", qPrintable(str));
 
    int pos, q1, q2 = 0;
 
    QRegularExpression re("(?<![\\\\])\"");
 
    pos = 0;
    q1 = str.indexOf(re);
 
    if (q1 == -1)
    {
        // no quotes in string, so just remove all spaces
        outstr += str.mid(0).remove(" ");
    }
    else
    {
        while (q1 != -1 && q2 != -1)
        {
            q2 = str.indexOf(re, q1+1);
            if (q2 == -1)
            {
                // unbalanced quotes, so strip all spaces from current pos to end of string (or return an error, etc)
                outstr += str.mid(pos).remove(" ");
            }
            else
            {
                // found balanced quote, so strip spaces before quote and append
                // quoted portion, then look for next quoted section and continue looping
                outstr += str.mid(pos, q1-pos).remove(" ");
                outstr += str.mid(q1,q2-q1+1);
                pos = q2 + 1;
                q1 = str.indexOf(re, pos);
                if (q1 == -1)
                {
                    // no more quoted text, remove spaces from rest of string
                    outstr += str.mid(pos).remove(" ");
                }
            }
        }
    }
 
    qDebug("%s", qPrintable(outstr));

// remove spaces in string outside of quotes

    QString str = "@BEGIN:4; 17, 1;1, \"This is some text right here.\";  3;  18;1, \"This is more text.\";  3;  18;1, \"Another set of text right here.\";  3;  2; 5;11, LABEL;end;@LABEL:7, 1;8;end;@END";
    QString outstr;

    qDebug("....................................................................................................1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........");
    qDebug("..........1.........2.........3.........4.........5.........6.........7.........8.........9.........0.........1.........2.........3.........4.........5.........6.........7.........");
    qDebug("012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789");
    qDebug("%s", qPrintable(str));

    int pos, q1, q2 = 0;

    QRegularExpression re("(?<![\\\\])\"");

    pos = 0;
    q1 = str.indexOf(re);

    if (q1 == -1)
    {
        // no quotes in string, so just remove all spaces
        outstr += str.mid(0).remove(" ");
    }
    else
    {
        while (q1 != -1 && q2 != -1)
        {
            q2 = str.indexOf(re, q1+1);
            if (q2 == -1)
            {
                // unbalanced quotes, so strip all spaces from current pos to end of string (or return an error, etc)
                outstr += str.mid(pos).remove(" ");
            }
            else
            {
                // found balanced quote, so strip spaces before quote and append
                // quoted portion, then look for next quoted section and continue looping
                outstr += str.mid(pos, q1-pos).remove(" ");
                outstr += str.mid(q1,q2-q1+1);
                pos = q2 + 1;
                q1 = str.indexOf(re, pos);
                if (q1 == -1)
                {
                    // no more quoted text, remove spaces from rest of string
                    outstr += str.mid(pos).remove(" ");
                }
            }
        }
    }

    qDebug("%s", qPrintable(outstr));

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And the output that shows the original string and the output string after removing spaces (with a header to show column offset):

....................................................................................................1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........
..........1.........2.........3.........4.........5.........6.........7.........8.........9.........0.........1.........2.........3.........4.........5.........6.........7.........
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@BEGIN:4; 17, 1;1, "This is some text right here.";  3;  18;1, "This is more text.";  3;  18;1, "Another set of text right here.";  3;  2; 5;11, LABEL;end;@LABEL:7, 1;8;end;@END
@BEGIN:4;17,1;1,"This is some text right here.";3;18;1,"This is more text.";3;18;1,"Another set of text right here.";3;2;5;11,LABEL;end;@LABEL:7,1;8;end;@END

....................................................................................................1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........1.........
..........1.........2.........3.........4.........5.........6.........7.........8.........9.........0.........1.........2.........3.........4.........5.........6.........7.........
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@BEGIN:4; 17, 1;1, "This is some text right here.";  3;  18;1, "This is more text.";  3;  18;1, "Another set of text right here.";  3;  2; 5;11, LABEL;end;@LABEL:7, 1;8;end;@END
@BEGIN:4;17,1;1,"This is some text right here.";3;18;1,"This is more text.";3;18;1,"Another set of text right here.";3;2;5;11,LABEL;end;@LABEL:7,1;8;end;@END

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