Remove whitespace from the output of foreach

[Rakesh Sharma]

Hello Makers,

I have a niggling query regarding how to remove the spaces from the output of a 
foreach command in GNU Make.

I have this code:

###### begin make file ###
SHELL := /bin/sh
empty :=
sp ;= $(empty) $(empty)
k0 := $(empty)
k1 := x
k2 := $(k1) x
k3 := $(k2) x
k4 := $(k3) x
k5 := $(k4) x
k6 := $(k5) x
k7 := $(k6) x
k8 := $(k7) x
k9 := $(k8) x

# $(call replicate,char,kount)
replicate = $(subst $(sp),$(empty),$(foreach i,$(k$(2)),$1))

nop:
    @echo "[$(call replicate,*,4)]";
############################## end of make file

Output is:
[* * * *]


As we can see the spaces are intact & should have been deleted by the subst 
function but for some reason weren't.

How can I fix this anomaly?

I am using GNU Make 3.81.
Cygwin Platform


Thanks in advance,
Rakesh