How to remove any non-alphanumeric characters?

Question

I want to remove any non-alphanumeric character from a string, except for certain ones. `StringUtils.replacePattern(input, "\p{Alnum}", "");` How can I also exclude those certain characters, like `.-;`?

Accepted Answer

Use the not operator `^`:

```
[^a-zA-Z0-9.\-;]+
```

This means "match what is not these characters". So:

```
StringUtils.replacePattern(input, "[^a-zA-Z0-9.\-;]+", "");
```

Don't forget to properly escape the characters that need escaping: you need to use two backslashes `\` because your regex is a Java string.

How to remove any non-alphanumeric characters?

Solution

Problem