Is there a simple way to remove multiple spaces in a string?

Question

Suppose this string:

The   fox jumped   over    the log.

Turning into:

Answer 1

Quite surprising - no one posted simple function which will be much faster than ALL other posted solutions. Here it goes:

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