SQL method to replace repeating blanks with single blanks

Question

Is there a more elegant way of doing this. I want to replace repeating blanks with single blanks....

   declare @i int

    set @i=0
    while @i <= 20
           


        

Answer 1

For me the above examples almost did a trick but I needed something that was more stable and independent of the table or column or a set number of iterations. So this is my modification from most of the above queries.

CREATE FUNCTION udfReplaceAll 
(
    @OriginalText NVARCHAR(MAX),
    @OldText NVARCHAR(MAX),
    @NewText NVARCHAR(MAX)
)
RETURNS NVARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
    WHILE (@OriginalText LIKE '%' + @OldText + '%')
    BEGIN
        SET @OriginalText = REPLACE(@OriginalText,@OldText,@NewText)
    END

    RETURN @OriginalText
END
GO

Answer 2

SELECT 'starting...' --sets @@rowcount
WHILE @@rowcount <> 0
    update myTable
    set myTextColumn = replace(myTextColumn, '  ', ' ')
    where myTextColumn like '%  %'

Answer 3

REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(myTextColumn,' ',' %'),'% ',''),'%','')

Statement above worked terrifically for replacing multiple spaces with a single space. Optionally add LTRIM and RTRIM to remove spaces at the beginning.

Got it from here: http://burnignorance.com/database-tips-and-tricks/remove-multiple-spaces-from-a-string-using-sql-server/