re = /(?<=\s)\s+/
str = 'Here is one space
Here are two whitespaces
Here are three whitespaces
Here are four whitespaces then three whitespaces
Four spaces at beginning preceded by a newline
Two spaces then three then four then five
then none
Four spaces at end
'
subst = ' '
result = str.gsub(re, subst)
# Print the result of the substitution
puts result
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html