[FIXED] How to remove invalid characters from a string?

Issue

I have no idea how to remove invalid characters from a string in Java. I'm trying to remove all the characters that are not numbers, letters, or ( ) [ ] . How can I do this?

Thanks

Solution

String foo = "this is a thing with & in it";
foo = foo.replaceAll("[^A-Za-z0-9()\\[\\]]", "");

Javadocs are your friend. Regular expressions are also your friend.

Edit:

That being siad, this is only for the Latin alphabet; you can adjust accordingly. \\w can be used for a-zA-Z to denote a "word" character if that works for your case though it includes _.

Answered By - Brian Roach
Answer Checked By - Willingham (JavaFixing Volunteer)