function trim(inputString) {
   // Removes leading and trailing spaces from the passed string. Also removes
   // consecutive spaces and replaces it with one space. If something besides
   // a string is passed in (null, custom object, etc.) then return the input.
   if (typeof inputString != "string") return inputString;
   var retValue = inputString;
   var ch = retValue.substring(0, 1);
	
   while (ch == " ") { // Check for spaces at the beginning of the string
      retValue = retValue.substring(1, retValue.length);
      ch = retValue.substring(0, 1);
   }
   ch = retValue.substring(retValue.length - 1, retValue.length);
	
   while (ch == " ") { // Check for spaces at the end of the string
      retValue = retValue.substring(0, retValue.length - 1);
      ch = retValue.substring(retValue.length - 1, retValue.length);
   }
	
	// Note that there are two spaces in the string - look for multiple spaces within the string
   while (retValue.indexOf("  ") != -1) {
		// Again, there are two spaces in each of the strings
      retValue = retValue.substring(0, retValue.indexOf("  ")) + retValue.substring(retValue.indexOf("  ") + 1, retValue.length);
   }
   return retValue; // Return the trimmed string back to the user
}