Removing special chars from a string

Question

I use the code to remove all the special chars from a string, but its removing the white spaces also. how can I exclude spaces ?ie I need to have the white spaces as it is.

String alphaAndDigits = keyword.replaceAll("[^a-zA-Z0-9]+","");

Answer 1

String alphaAndDigits = keyword.replaceAll("[^A-Za-z\\d\\s]+","");

• \\s is the matcher for whitespaces [ \\t\\n\\x0b\\r\\f]
• \\d is the matcher for digits [0-9]

String alphaAndDigits = keyword.replaceAll("[^A-Za-z0-9 \\t\\n\\x0b\\r\\f]+","");

would be the same if you prefer that

Answer 2

        String alphaAndDigits = "hello&%*..sad**";
        Pattern ptn = Pattern.compile("[^S a-zA-Z0-9]");
        Matcher match = ptn.matcher(alphaAndDigits);
        while (match.find()) {
            String str = match.group();
            alphaAndDigits =alphaAndDigits.replaceAll("\\" + str, "");
        }
        System.out.println(alphaAndDigits);