Two period missing values

[samp]

For some reason, I have two missing values that are listed as periods. I want to combine them into one but I don't know how or why they are two rows for the exact same response.  Are there hidden spaces I can't see? Picture attached.

[Reeza]

Is your variable character or numeric? I'm guessing character and yes to eithe spaces or tabs. 

Look at the compress function - specifically the modifiers for all whitespace.