replacing specific characters in between specific elements

I'd like to use a regular expression 开发者_如何学编程to replace a space in a string. The space in question is the only space between two elements in the string. The string itself however contains much more elements and spaces. So far i've tried

(<-)[\s]*?(->)

But that doesnt work. It is supposed to take

<-word anotherword->

and allow me to replace the space in it.

As \s selects all spaces, and

(<-)[\s\S]*?(->)

Selects all characters inbetween the <- and ->, i tried to re-use the expression but then for the spaces only.

I'm not so good at these expressions, and i can't for the life of me find an answer anywhere.

If anyone could just point me to the answer, that would be great. Thanks.

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It's difficult to be sure what you want, post some before and after examples. And, specify what language you are using.

But, it looks like (<-\S+)\s*(\S+->) should probably do it (deletes spaces).

If the <- and -> are NOT to be preserved, move them out of the parentheses, like so:
<-(\S+)\s*(\S+)->

Here's what it would look like in JavaScript:

var before  = "Ten years ago a crack <-flegan esque-> unit was sent to prison by a military "
            + "court for a crime they didn't commit.\n"
            + "These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the "
            + "<-flargon 666-> underground.\n"
            + "Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune.\n"
            + "If you have a problem and no one else can help, and if you can find them, "
            + "maybe you can hire the <-flugen  9->.\n"
            ;

var after   = before.replace (/(<-\S+)\s*(\S+->)/g, "$1$2");

alert (after);

Which yields:

Ten years ago a crack <-fleganesque-> unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit.
These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the <-flargon666-> underground.
Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune.
If you have a problem and no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the <-flugen9->.