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

how about a non regex way

def squeeze(char,s):
    while char*2 in s:
        s=s.replace(char*2,char)
    return s
print(squeeze("*" , "AB***abc**def**AA***k"))

This returns AB*abc*def*AA*k