I need to use JavaScript to remove blank lines in a HTML text box. The blank lines can be at anywhere in the `textarea` element. A blank line can be just a return or white spaces plus return.

I am expecting a regular expression solution to this. Here are some I tried, but they are not working and cannot figure out why:

```
/^\s*\r?\n/g   

/^\s*\r?\n$/g

```

**Edit 1**

It appears that the solution (I modified it a little) suggested by aaronman and m.buettner works:

```
string.replace(/^\s*\n/gm, "") 

```

Can someone tell why my first regular expression is not working?

**Edit 2**

After reading all useful answers, I came up with this:

```
/^[\s\t]*(\r\n|\n|\r)/gm

```

Is this going to be one that cover all situations?

**Edit 3**

This is the most concise one covering all spaces (white spaces, tabs) and platforms (Linux, Windows, Mac).

```
/^\s*[\r\n]/gm

```

Many thanks to m.buettner!