Removing multiple duplicate characters from a string

Question

I have lines like this:

$str = 'This -----is a bbbb test';

How to remove all duplicate characters if this happens more than three times?

So, for example, the line above should look like this:

'This is a  test';

+3

Mike Apr 13 '12 at 23:04

2 answers

$t = preg_replace('/(\S)\1{3,}/', '', $t);

Each non-space longer than 3 characters will be replaced by nothing

+1

Dan lee Apr 13 '12 at 23:07

Tim cooper · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-13T23:07:01+0000

$new_str = preg_replace('/(.)\1{3,}/', '', $str);