regex - replace multiple occurrences of any special character by one in python -

i have string like:

string = "happy.....!!!"

and want output like:

new_string = "happy.!"

i know how replace multiple occurrence of special character. can done follows:

line = re.sub('\.+', '.', line)

but want replace special characters ",./\, etc. 1 way write each special character. want know if there easy way write special characters in 1 line.

you can use \w match non-word character:

line = re.sub(r'\w+', '.', line)

if want replace same special character use:

line = re.sub(r'(\w)(?=\1)', '', line)

Macro