Replace multiple 's with only one

Question

How do I use JavaScript to detect

to become one

?

I trie

Answer 1

Wouldn't something like this be the right approach:

$("br~br").remove()

EDIT: No, it's wrong, because its definition of "contiguous" is too loose, as per BoltClock.

Answer 2

Simpler:

var newText = oldText.replace(/(<br\s*\/?>){3,}/gi, '<br>');

This will allow optional tag terminator (/>) and also spaces before tag end (e.g. <br /> or <br >).

Answer 3

A lot of the other answers to this question will only replace up to certain amount of elements, or use complex loops. I came up with a simple regex that can be used to replace any number of <br> tags with a single tag. This works with multiple instances of multiple tags in a string.

/(<br>*)+/g

To implement this in JavaScript, you can use the String.replace method:

myString.replace(/(<br>*)+/g, "<br/>");

To replace multiple <br/> tags, add a / to the regex:

/(<br\/>*)+/g