How do I remove all non alphanumeric characters from a string except dash?

I could have used RegEx, they can provide elegant solution but they can cause performane issues. Here is one solution

char[] arr = str.ToCharArray();

arr = Array.FindAll<char>(arr, (c => (char.IsLetterOrDigit(c) 
                                  || char.IsWhiteSpace(c) 
                                  || c == '-')));
str = new string(arr);

When using the compact framework (which doesn't have FindAll)

Replace FindAll with¹

char[] arr = str.Where(c => (char.IsLetterOrDigit(c) || 
                             char.IsWhiteSpace(c) || 
                             c == '-')).ToArray(); 

str = new string(arr);

¹ Comment by ShawnFeatherly

You can try:

string s1 = Regex.Replace(s, "[^A-Za-z0-9 -]", "");

Where s is your string.

Using System.Linq

string withOutSpecialCharacters = new string(stringWithSpecialCharacters.Where(c =>char.IsLetterOrDigit(c) || char.IsWhiteSpace(c) || c == '-').ToArray());

The regex is [^\w\s\-]*:

\s is better to use instead of space (), because there might be a tab in the text.

Based on the answer for this question, I created a static class and added these. Thought it might be useful for some people.

public static class RegexConvert
{
    public static string ToAlphaNumericOnly(this string input)
    {
        Regex rgx = new Regex("[^a-zA-Z0-9]");
        return rgx.Replace(input, "");
    }

    public static string ToAlphaOnly(this string input)
    {
        Regex rgx = new Regex("[^a-zA-Z]");
        return rgx.Replace(input, "");
    }

    public static string ToNumericOnly(this string input)
    {
        Regex rgx = new Regex("[^0-9]");
        return rgx.Replace(input, "");
    }
}

Then the methods can be used as:

string example = "asdf1234!@#$";
string alphanumeric = example.ToAlphaNumericOnly();
string alpha = example.ToAlphaOnly();
string numeric = example.ToNumericOnly();

Want something quick?

public static class StringExtensions 
{
    public static string ToAlphaNumeric(this string self,
                                        params char[] allowedCharacters)
    {
        return new string(Array.FindAll(self.ToCharArray(),
                                        c => char.IsLetterOrDigit(c) ||
                                        allowedCharacters.Contains(c)));
    }
}

This will allow you to specify which characters you want to allow as well.

Here is a non-regex heap allocation friendly fast solution which was what I was looking for.

Unsafe edition.

public static unsafe void ToAlphaNumeric(ref string input)
{
    fixed (char* p = input)
    {
        int offset = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
        {
            if (char.IsLetterOrDigit(p[i]))
            {
                p[offset] = input[i];
                offset++;
            }
        }
        ((int*)p)[-1] = offset; // Changes the length of the string
        p[offset] = '\0';
    }
}

And for those who don't want to use unsafe or don't trust the string length hack.

public static string ToAlphaNumeric(string input)
{
    int j = 0;
    char[] newCharArr = new char[input.Length];

    for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
    {
        if (char.IsLetterOrDigit(input[i]))
        {
            newCharArr[j] = input[i];
            j++;
        }
    }

    Array.Resize(ref newCharArr, j);

    return new string(newCharArr);
}

I´ve made a different solution, by eliminating the Control characters, which was my original problem.

It is better than putting in a list all the "special but good" chars

char[] arr = str.Where(c => !char.IsControl(c)).ToArray();    
str = new string(arr);

it´s simpler, so I think it´s better !

Here's an extension method using @ata answer as inspiration.

"hello-world123, 456".MakeAlphaNumeric(new char[]{'-'});// yields "hello-world123456"

or if you require additional characters other than hyphen...

"hello-world123, 456!?".MakeAlphaNumeric(new char[]{'-','!'});// yields "hello-world123456!"


public static class StringExtensions
{   
    public static string MakeAlphaNumeric(this string input, params char[] exceptions)
    {
        var charArray = input.ToCharArray();
        var alphaNumeric = Array.FindAll<char>(charArray, (c => char.IsLetterOrDigit(c)|| exceptions?.Contains(c) == true));
        return new string(alphaNumeric);
    }
}

If you are working in JS, here is a very terse version

myString = myString.replace(/[^A-Za-z0-9 -]/g, "");

I use a variation of one of the answers here. I want to replace spaces with "-" so its SEO friendly and also make lower case. Also not reference system.web from my services layer.

private string MakeUrlString(string input)
{
    var array = input.ToCharArray();

    array = Array.FindAll<char>(array, c => char.IsLetterOrDigit(c) || char.IsWhiteSpace(c) || c == '-');

    var newString = new string(array).Replace(" ", "-").ToLower();
    return newString;
}

There is a much easier way with Regex.

private string FixString(string str)
{
    return string.IsNullOrEmpty(str) ? str : Regex.Replace(str, "[\\D]", "");
}