void MyString::cleanUpPaddedHyphens(std::string &string_OUT)
{
    //run cleanUpExtraSpaces() before cleaning padded hyphens.
    size_t index {0};
    std::vector<size_t> indexes_to_erase {};
    //search loop
    for (const char &character : string_OUT)
    {
        //look for an occurance of a digit followed by a space followed by a hyphen '5 -'
        if (isdigit(character) && string_OUT.substr(index + 1, 2) == " -")
        {
            //pre-space detected, add it to the erase list
            indexes_to_erase.push_back(index + 1); // +1 because the space is one character after the index
        }
        //look for an occurance of a hyphen followed by a space followed by a digit '- 7'
        if (string_OUT.substr(index, 2) == "- " && isdigit(string_OUT[index + 2]))
        {
            //post-space detected, add it to the erase list
            indexes_to_erase.push_back(index + 1);
        }
        index++;
    }
    //clean string from back to front to keep index numbers valid
    while (indexes_to_erase.empty() == false)
    {
        index = indexes_to_erase.back();
        indexes_to_erase.pop_back();
        string_OUT.erase(index, 1);
        //diag
        //std::cout << "\nremoving space at " << index << "\n";
        //end diag
    }
    //diag
    //std::cout << "\n" << string_OUT << "\n";
    //end diag
}