PowerShell Script to Remove Spaces from String

Use the PowerShell command $string -replace ' ', '' to remove all spaces from a string.

Examples

Inputhello world

Outputhelloworld

Input PowerShell script

OutputPowerShellscript

InputnoSpacesHere

OutputnoSpacesHere

How to Think About It

To remove spaces from a string, think of replacing every space character with nothing. This means scanning the string and deleting all spaces wherever they appear.

Algorithm

1

Get the input string.

2

Find all space characters in the string.

3

Replace each space with an empty string.

4

Return the modified string without spaces.

Code

powershell

$string = "PowerShell script to remove spaces"
$result = $string -replace ' ', ''
Write-Output $result

Output

PowerShellscripttoremovespaces

Dry Run

Let's trace the string 'hello world' through the code

1

Input string

hello world

2

Replace spaces

Remove all ' ' characters

3

Output string

helloworld

Step	String Value
Initial	hello world
After replace	helloworld

Why This Works

Step 1: Using -replace operator

The -replace operator in PowerShell replaces text matching a pattern with a new string.

Step 2: Pattern is space character

We specify a single space ' ' as the pattern to find all spaces.

Step 3: Replace with empty string

Replacing spaces with '' removes them from the string.

Alternative Approaches

Using .Replace() method

powershell

$string = "PowerShell script to remove spaces"
$result = $string.Replace(' ', '')
Write-Output $result

This method is simple and fast but only replaces literal spaces, not other whitespace.

Using regex to remove all whitespace

powershell

$string = "PowerShell script to remove spaces"
$result = $string -replace '\s', ''
Write-Output $result

This removes all whitespace characters including tabs and newlines, not just spaces.

Complexity: O(n) time, O(n) space

Time Complexity

The operation scans each character once to find spaces, so it runs in linear time relative to string length.

Space Complexity

A new string is created without spaces, so space usage is proportional to the input string size.

Which Approach is Fastest?

Using .Replace() is slightly faster for simple space removal, but -replace is more flexible for patterns.

Approach	Time	Space	Best For
-replace ' '	O(n)	O(n)	Removing spaces with regex flexibility
.Replace(' ')	O(n)	O(n)	Simple literal space removal
-replace '\s'	O(n)	O(n)	Removing all whitespace characters