consecutive characters condense_characters.pl $input $character $out_file1 Tabs Spaces Dots Commas Dashes Underscores Pipes

**What it does** This tool condenses all consecutive characters of a specified type. ----- **Example** - Input file:: geneX,,,10,,,,,20 geneY,,5,,,,,12,15,9, - Condense all consecutive commas. The above file will be converted into:: geneX,10,20 geneY,5,12,15,9