#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use feature 'say';

my $string = "This     is        a string with   variable     numbers   of    spaces.";
say "original: $string";
my $number_of_substitutions = $string =~ s|\s{2,}| |g;
say "cleaned:  $string";
say "# of substitutions: $number_of_substitutions";

__END__
original: This     is        a string with   variable     numbers   of    spaces.
cleaned:  This is a string with variable numbers of spaces.
# of substitutions: 6

##</code><code>##

my $cleaned = $token->as_is;
$cleaned =~ s/\s{2,}/ /g;  # I took out the /s modifier. I thought it was only for transliteration (e.g., $cleaned =~ tr/ //s).

##</code><code>##

my $cleaned = $token->as_is =~ s/\s{2,}/ /gr;