How to remove special characters from string Python (4 Ways)

Remove Special Characters from string Python

In this tutorial, we will be solving a program for how to remove special characters from string Python

How to remove special characters from String Python (Including Space )

We will be solving the above problem statement in 4 different ways.

Method 1 – Using isalmun() method

Python isalnum() return True if all the characters in the string are alphanumeric. Alphanumeric characters meaning the character can alphabet(a-z) or it can be a number(0-9). And it returns false if a string contains the non-alphanumeric character such as @, !, #, $, %, &, space, etc.

Example:

s = "TheProblemSeeker10"
print(s.isalnum())

Output: True

Because the string ‘s’ does not contain any non-alphanumeric values.

Steps to remove special characters from String Python

  1. Take input from the user or define the string from which you want to remove the special characters.
  2. Define a new empty string named “final_string” to store the alphanumeric characters.
  3. Apply for loop to access each character in the string and check the character is alphanumeric by using the isalnum() method.
  4. If the character is alphanumeric concatenate that to our new string “final_string”.
  5. End For Loop

Python Code

#define input string
input_string = "The Problem Seeker@10"
final_string = "" #define string for ouput
for character in input_string:
    if(character.isalnum()):
        # if character is alphanumeric concat to final_string
        final_string = final_string + character
print("Sample String:", input_string)
print("Final String:", final_string)

Output:

Original String: The Problem Seeker@10
Final String: TheProblemSeeker10

Method 2 – Using replace() method​

The approach of this method is to find the special characters using the loop and replace them with a blank string.

Python Code:

#define input string
sample_string = "The Problem Seeker@10"

#define special characters list
special_characters = ['!','#','$','%', '&','@','[',']',' ',']','_']

#print input sample string 
print("Original String:", sample_string)

#using for loop and replace to remove special characters
for i in special_characters:
    sample_string = sample_string.replace(i,'')
    
# print final sample string    
print("Final String:",sample_string)

Output:

Original String: The Problem Seeker@10
Final String: TheProblemSeeker10

Method 3 – Using filter()

Another way to remove special characters from string is by using the filter function and lambda function. 

Python Code:

#define input string
sample_string = "The Problem Seeker@10"

#define special characters list
special_characters = ['!','#','$','%', '&','@','[',']',' ',']','_']

#print input sample string 
print("Original String:", sample_string)

# lambda and join function
sample_string = ''.join(filter(lambda i:i not in special_characters, sample_string))
    
# print final sample string    
print("Final String:",sample_string)

Output:

Original String: The Problem Seeker@10
Final String: TheProblemSeeker10

Method 4 – Using join + generator function

In the generator function we specify the logic that will help us to ignore the special characters from the string and then we remake the string using the join() method.

Python Code:

#define input string
sample_string = "The Problem Seeker@10"

#define special characters list
special_characters = ['!','#','$','%', '&','@','[',']',' ',']','_']

#print input sample string 
print("Original String:", sample_string)

# lambda and join function
sample_string = ''.join(filter(lambda i:i not in special_characters, sample_string))
    
# print final sample string    
print("Final String:",sample_string)

Output:

Original String: The Problem Seeker@10
Final String: TheProblemSeeker10

How to remove special characters from String Python Except Space

Sometimes we need space in our string but not special characters, we can do that by following methods.

Method 1 – Using isalnum()

Here as well we will be using isalnum() but in this, we will check the space character and concatenate it with the final string.

Steps to remove special characters from String Python Except Space are

  1. Take input from the user or define the string from which you want to remove the special characters.
  2. Define a new empty string named “final_string” to store the alphanumeric characters.
  3. Apply for loop to access each character in the string and check whether the character is  space or not
  4. If the character is space, concatenate it to “final_string”
  5. If not space then check the character is alphanumeric by using isalnum() method.
  6. If the character is alphanumeric concatenate that to our new string “final_string”.
  7. End For loop

Python Code:

input_string = "The Problem Seeker@10"
final_string = ""
for character in input_string:
    if  character == " ":
     #checking charcter is space and if yes concat
        final_string = final_string + character
    else:
        if(character.isalnum()):
            final_string = final_string + character
print(final_string)

Output:

The Problem Seeker10

Method 2 – Using Regex Expression

To remove all special characters from string we can apply a rule using the regex expression. To eliminate the special characters from string regex expression can be defined as [^A-Za-z0-9]+

To know more about regular expression( regex expression) you read here.

Python Code:

#importing re model
import re
#define input string
sample_string = "The Problem Seeker@10"
#print input sample string 
print("Original String:", sample_string)
# using regex expression
final_string = re.sub('[^A-Za-z0-9]+', '', sample_string)
# print final sample string    
print("Final String:",sample_string)

Output:

Original String: The Problem Seeker@10

Final String: The Problem Seeker10

Conclusion

In this way, by using isalnum(), replace() methods we can remove special characters from string python including space.

We have also seen how to remove special characters python except for space by using the regex expression and isalnum() method.

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