Check for special characters in string

Question

I want to check if a string contains special characters like !@#$%^&*.,<>/\'";:? and return true if the string contains atleast one of those chars.

I tried with the following regex,script:

var format = /^[!@#$%^&*()_+\-=\[\]{};':"\\|,.<>\/?]*$/;

if( string.match(format) ){
  return true;
}else{
  return false;
}

If the string contains only the special characters then it returns true , but if the string contains something else like alphanumeric chars ( !example1 , .example2 ) it returns false.

Mistress

remove the anchors and the quantifier. To be more concise, you can use a ternary operator like this: return str.match(format) ? true : false; – Lying

@Takendarkk , that's what it looks like? no,i want an advice on what i've done wrong – Mistress

@PetruLebada Well, considering you never actually asked a question in your post I was left to guess. – Caithness

How do you think your conditions can ever be fullfilled in the real world? Please re-read your question, and make corrections needed. – Acetify

@Acetify i'm sorry if i'm rude but i think everyone can figure out what my question's about , as i've received some good answers in a short time.Just because i didn't end my question with a ? mark doesn't mean is not well build. – Mistress

Return true if at least one special character, return false if any alphanumeric ... Logically impossible. – Acetify

@Acetify , maybe is something wrong with me,but it doesn't look so ilogically ... if it makes you understand , i'm trying to block strings containing special characters , in case a string has atleast one special character,run an alert. – Mistress

Ah... the text below the code describes how the code works, not your actual conditions? If that's the case, then I'm really sorry, this is my bad. – Acetify

Answer 1

I suggest using RegExp .test() function to check for a pattern match, and the only thing you need to change is remove the start/end of line anchors (and the * quantifier is also redundant) in the regex:

var format = /[ `!@#$%^&*()_+\-=\[\]{};':"\\|,.<>\/?~]/;
//            ^                                       ^   
document.write(format.test("My@string-with(some%text)") + "<br/>");
document.write(format.test("My string with spaces") + "<br/>");
document.write(format.test("MyStringContainingNoSpecialChars"));

The anchors (like ^ start of string/line, $ end od string/line and \b word boundaries) can restrict matches at specific places in a string. When using ^ the regex engine checks if the next subpattern appears right at the start of the string (or line if /m modifier is declared in the regex). Same case with $: the preceding subpattern should match right at the end of the string.

In your case, you want to check the existence of the special character from the set anywhere in the string. Even if it is only one, you want to return false. Thus, you should remove the anchors, and the quantifier *. The * quantifier would match even an empty string, thus we must remove it in order to actually check for the presence of at least 1 special character (actually, without any quantifiers we check for exactly one occurrence, same as if we were using {1} limiting quantifier).

More specific solutions

What characters are "special" for you?

• All chars other than ASCII chars: /[^\x00-\x7F]/ (demo)
• All chars other than printable ASCII chars: /[^ -~]/ (demo)
• Any printable ASCII chars other than space, letters and digits: /[!-\/:-@[-`{-~]/ (demo)
• Any Unicode punctuation proper chars, the \p{P} Unicode property class:
  • ECMAScript 2018: /\p{P}/u
  • ES6+:

/[!-#%-*,-\/:;?@[-\]_{}\u00A1\u00A7\u00AB\u00B6\u00B7\u00BB\u00BF\u037E\u0387\u055A-\u055F\u0589\u058A\u05BE\u05C0\u05C3\u05C6\u05F3\u05F4\u0609\u060A\u060C\u060D\u061B\u061E\u061F\u066A-\u066D\u06D4\u0700-\u070D\u07F7-\u07F9\u0830-\u083E\u085E\u0964\u0965\u0970\u09FD\u0A76\u0AF0\u0C84\u0DF4\u0E4F\u0E5A\u0E5B\u0F04-\u0F12\u0F14\u0F3A-\u0F3D\u0F85\u0FD0-\u0FD4\u0FD9\u0FDA\u104A-\u104F\u10FB\u1360-\u1368\u1400\u166D\u166E\u169B\u169C\u16EB-\u16ED\u1735\u1736\u17D4-\u17D6\u17D8-\u17DA\u1800-\u180A\u1944\u1945\u1A1E\u1A1F\u1AA0-\u1AA6\u1AA8-\u1AAD\u1B5A-\u1B60\u1BFC-\u1BFF\u1C3B-\u1C3F\u1C7E\u1C7F\u1CC0-\u1CC7\u1CD3\u2010-\u2027\u2030-\u2043\u2045-\u2051\u2053-\u205E\u207D\u207E\u208D\u208E\u2308-\u230B\u2329\u232A\u2768-\u2775\u27C5\u27C6\u27E6-\u27EF\u2983-\u2998\u29D8-\u29DB\u29FC\u29FD\u2CF9-\u2CFC\u2CFE\u2CFF\u2D70\u2E00-\u2E2E\u2E30-\u2E4E\u3001-\u3003\u3008-\u3011\u3014-\u301F\u3030\u303D\u30A0\u30FB\uA4FE\uA4FF\uA60D-\uA60F\uA673\uA67E\uA6F2-\uA6F7\uA874-\uA877\uA8CE\uA8CF\uA8F8-\uA8FA\uA8FC\uA92E\uA92F\uA95F\uA9C1-\uA9CD\uA9DE\uA9DF\uAA5C-\uAA5F\uAADE\uAADF\uAAF0\uAAF1\uABEB\uFD3E\uFD3F\uFE10-\uFE19\uFE30-\uFE52\uFE54-\uFE61\uFE63\uFE68\uFE6A\uFE6B\uFF01-\uFF03\uFF05-\uFF0A\uFF0C-\uFF0F\uFF1A\uFF1B\uFF1F\uFF20\uFF3B-\uFF3D\uFF3F\uFF5B\uFF5D\uFF5F-\uFF65\u{10100}-\u{10102}\u{1039F}\u{103D0}\u{1056F}\u{10857}\u{1091F}\u{1093F}\u{10A50}-\u{10A58}\u{10A7F}\u{10AF0}-\u{10AF6}\u{10B39}-\u{10B3F}\u{10B99}-\u{10B9C}\u{10F55}-\u{10F59}\u{11047}-\u{1104D}\u{110BB}\u{110BC}\u{110BE}-\u{110C1}\u{11140}-\u{11143}\u{11174}\u{11175}\u{111C5}-\u{111C8}\u{111CD}\u{111DB}\u{111DD}-\u{111DF}\u{11238}-\u{1123D}\u{112A9}\u{1144B}-\u{1144F}\u{1145B}\u{1145D}\u{114C6}\u{115C1}-\u{115D7}\u{11641}-\u{11643}\u{11660}-\u{1166C}\u{1173C}-\u{1173E}\u{1183B}\u{11A3F}-\u{11A46}\u{11A9A}-\u{11A9C}\u{11A9E}-\u{11AA2}\u{11C41}-\u{11C45}\u{11C70}\u{11C71}\u{11EF7}\u{11EF8}\u{12470}-\u{12474}\u{16A6E}\u{16A6F}\u{16AF5}\u{16B37}-\u{16B3B}\u{16B44}\u{16E97}-\u{16E9A}\u{1BC9F}\u{1DA87}-\u{1DA8B}\u{1E95E}\u{1E95F}]/u

         ● ES5 (demo):

/(?:[!-#%-\*,-\/:;\?@\[-\]_\{\}\xA1\xA7\xAB\xB6\xB7\xBB\xBF\u037E\u0387\u055A-\u055F\u0589\u058A\u05BE\u05C0\u05C3\u05C6\u05F3\u05F4\u0609\u060A\u060C\u060D\u061B\u061E\u061F\u066A-\u066D\u06D4\u0700-\u070D\u07F7-\u07F9\u0830-\u083E\u085E\u0964\u0965\u0970\u09FD\u0A76\u0AF0\u0C84\u0DF4\u0E4F\u0E5A\u0E5B\u0F04-\u0F12\u0F14\u0F3A-\u0F3D\u0F85\u0FD0-\u0FD4\u0FD9\u0FDA\u104A-\u104F\u10FB\u1360-\u1368\u1400\u166D\u166E\u169B\u169C\u16EB-\u16ED\u1735\u1736\u17D4-\u17D6\u17D8-\u17DA\u1800-\u180A\u1944\u1945\u1A1E\u1A1F\u1AA0-\u1AA6\u1AA8-\u1AAD\u1B5A-\u1B60\u1BFC-\u1BFF\u1C3B-\u1C3F\u1C7E\u1C7F\u1CC0-\u1CC7\u1CD3\u2010-\u2027\u2030-\u2043\u2045-\u2051\u2053-\u205E\u207D\u207E\u208D\u208E\u2308-\u230B\u2329\u232A\u2768-\u2775\u27C5\u27C6\u27E6-\u27EF\u2983-\u2998\u29D8-\u29DB\u29FC\u29FD\u2CF9-\u2CFC\u2CFE\u2CFF\u2D70\u2E00-\u2E2E\u2E30-\u2E4E\u3001-\u3003\u3008-\u3011\u3014-\u301F\u3030\u303D\u30A0\u30FB\uA4FE\uA4FF\uA60D-\uA60F\uA673\uA67E\uA6F2-\uA6F7\uA874-\uA877\uA8CE\uA8CF\uA8F8-\uA8FA\uA8FC\uA92E\uA92F\uA95F\uA9C1-\uA9CD\uA9DE\uA9DF\uAA5C-\uAA5F\uAADE\uAADF\uAAF0\uAAF1\uABEB\uFD3E\uFD3F\uFE10-\uFE19\uFE30-\uFE52\uFE54-\uFE61\uFE63\uFE68\uFE6A\uFE6B\uFF01-\uFF03\uFF05-\uFF0A\uFF0C-\uFF0F\uFF1A\uFF1B\uFF1F\uFF20\uFF3B-\uFF3D\uFF3F\uFF5B\uFF5D\uFF5F-\uFF65]|\uD800[\uDD00-\uDD02\uDF9F\uDFD0]|\uD801\uDD6F|\uD802[\uDC57\uDD1F\uDD3F\uDE50-\uDE58\uDE7F\uDEF0-\uDEF6\uDF39-\uDF3F\uDF99-\uDF9C]|\uD803[\uDF55-\uDF59]|\uD804[\uDC47-\uDC4D\uDCBB\uDCBC\uDCBE-\uDCC1\uDD40-\uDD43\uDD74\uDD75\uDDC5-\uDDC8\uDDCD\uDDDB\uDDDD-\uDDDF\uDE38-\uDE3D\uDEA9]|\uD805[\uDC4B-\uDC4F\uDC5B\uDC5D\uDCC6\uDDC1-\uDDD7\uDE41-\uDE43\uDE60-\uDE6C\uDF3C-\uDF3E]|\uD806[\uDC3B\uDE3F-\uDE46\uDE9A-\uDE9C\uDE9E-\uDEA2]|\uD807[\uDC41-\uDC45\uDC70\uDC71\uDEF7\uDEF8]|\uD809[\uDC70-\uDC74]|\uD81A[\uDE6E\uDE6F\uDEF5\uDF37-\uDF3B\uDF44]|\uD81B[\uDE97-\uDE9A]|\uD82F\uDC9F|\uD836[\uDE87-\uDE8B]|\uD83A[\uDD5E\uDD5F])/

• All Unicode symbols (not punctuation proper), \p{S}:
  • ECMAScript 2018: /\p{S}/u
  • ES6+:

/[$+^`|~\u00A2-\u00A6\u00A8\u00A9\u00AC\u00AE-\u00B1\u00B4\u00B8\u00D7\u00F7\u02C2-\u02C5\u02D2-\u02DF\u02E5-\u02EB\u02ED\u02EF-\u02FF\u0375\u0384\u0385\u03F6\u0482\u058D-\u058F\u0606-\u0608\u060B\u060E\u060F\u06DE\u06E9\u06FD\u06FE\u07F6\u07FE\u07FF\u09F2\u09F3\u09FA\u09FB\u0AF1\u0B70\u0BF3-\u0BFA\u0C7F\u0D4F\u0D79\u0E3F\u0F01-\u0F03\u0F13\u0F15-\u0F17\u0F1A-\u0F1F\u0F34\u0F36\u0F38\u0FBE-\u0FC5\u0FC7-\u0FCC\u0FCE\u0FCF\u0FD5-\u0FD8\u109E\u109F\u1390-\u1399\u17DB\u1940\u19DE-\u19FF\u1B61-\u1B6A\u1B74-\u1B7C\u1FBD\u1FBF-\u1FC1\u1FCD-\u1FCF\u1FDD-\u1FDF\u1FED-\u1FEF\u1FFD\u1FFE\u2044\u2052\u207A-\u207C\u208A-\u208C\u20A0-\u20BF\u2100\u2101\u2103-\u2106\u2108\u2109\u2114\u2116-\u2118\u211E-\u2123\u2125\u2127\u2129\u212E\u213A\u213B\u2140-\u2144\u214A-\u214D\u214F\u218A\u218B\u2190-\u2307\u230C-\u2328\u232B-\u2426\u2440-\u244A\u249C-\u24E9\u2500-\u2767\u2794-\u27C4\u27C7-\u27E5\u27F0-\u2982\u2999-\u29D7\u29DC-\u29FB\u29FE-\u2B73\u2B76-\u2B95\u2B98-\u2BC8\u2BCA-\u2BFE\u2CE5-\u2CEA\u2E80-\u2E99\u2E9B-\u2EF3\u2F00-\u2FD5\u2FF0-\u2FFB\u3004\u3012\u3013\u3020\u3036\u3037\u303E\u303F\u309B\u309C\u3190\u3191\u3196-\u319F\u31C0-\u31E3\u3200-\u321E\u322A-\u3247\u3250\u3260-\u327F\u328A-\u32B0\u32C0-\u32FE\u3300-\u33FF\u4DC0-\u4DFF\uA490-\uA4C6\uA700-\uA716\uA720\uA721\uA789\uA78A\uA828-\uA82B\uA836-\uA839\uAA77-\uAA79\uAB5B\uFB29\uFBB2-\uFBC1\uFDFC\uFDFD\uFE62\uFE64-\uFE66\uFE69\uFF04\uFF0B\uFF1C-\uFF1E\uFF3E\uFF40\uFF5C\uFF5E\uFFE0-\uFFE6\uFFE8-\uFFEE\uFFFC\uFFFD\u{10137}-\u{1013F}\u{10179}-\u{10189}\u{1018C}-\u{1018E}\u{10190}-\u{1019B}\u{101A0}\u{101D0}-\u{101FC}\u{10877}\u{10878}\u{10AC8}\u{1173F}\u{16B3C}-\u{16B3F}\u{16B45}\u{1BC9C}\u{1D000}-\u{1D0F5}\u{1D100}-\u{1D126}\u{1D129}-\u{1D164}\u{1D16A}-\u{1D16C}\u{1D183}\u{1D184}\u{1D18C}-\u{1D1A9}\u{1D1AE}-\u{1D1E8}\u{1D200}-\u{1D241}\u{1D245}\u{1D300}-\u{1D356}\u{1D6C1}\u{1D6DB}\u{1D6FB}\u{1D715}\u{1D735}\u{1D74F}\u{1D76F}\u{1D789}\u{1D7A9}\u{1D7C3}\u{1D800}-\u{1D9FF}\u{1DA37}-\u{1DA3A}\u{1DA6D}-\u{1DA74}\u{1DA76}-\u{1DA83}\u{1DA85}\u{1DA86}\u{1ECAC}\u{1ECB0}\u{1EEF0}\u{1EEF1}\u{1F000}-\u{1F02B}\u{1F030}-\u{1F093}\u{1F0A0}-\u{1F0AE}\u{1F0B1}-\u{1F0BF}\u{1F0C1}-\u{1F0CF}\u{1F0D1}-\u{1F0F5}\u{1F110}-\u{1F16B}\u{1F170}-\u{1F1AC}\u{1F1E6}-\u{1F202}\u{1F210}-\u{1F23B}\u{1F240}-\u{1F248}\u{1F250}\u{1F251}\u{1F260}-\u{1F265}\u{1F300}-\u{1F6D4}\u{1F6E0}-\u{1F6EC}\u{1F6F0}-\u{1F6F9}\u{1F700}-\u{1F773}\u{1F780}-\u{1F7D8}\u{1F800}-\u{1F80B}\u{1F810}-\u{1F847}\u{1F850}-\u{1F859}\u{1F860}-\u{1F887}\u{1F890}-\u{1F8AD}\u{1F900}-\u{1F90B}\u{1F910}-\u{1F93E}\u{1F940}-\u{1F970}\u{1F973}-\u{1F976}\u{1F97A}\u{1F97C}-\u{1F9A2}\u{1F9B0}-\u{1F9B9}\u{1F9C0}-\u{1F9C2}\u{1F9D0}-\u{1F9FF}\u{1FA60}-\u{1FA6D}]/u

         ● ES5 (demo):

/(?:[$+^`|~\xA2-\xA6\xA8\xA9\xAC\xAE-\xB1\xB4\xB8\xD7\xF7\u02C2-\u02C5\u02D2-\u02DF\u02E5-\u02EB\u02ED\u02EF-\u02FF\u0375\u0384\u0385\u03F6\u0482\u058D-\u058F\u0606-\u0608\u060B\u060E\u060F\u06DE\u06E9\u06FD\u06FE\u07F6\u07FE\u07FF\u09F2\u09F3\u09FA\u09FB\u0AF1\u0B70\u0BF3-\u0BFA\u0C7F\u0D4F\u0D79\u0E3F\u0F01-\u0F03\u0F13\u0F15-\u0F17\u0F1A-\u0F1F\u0F34\u0F36\u0F38\u0FBE-\u0FC5\u0FC7-\u0FCC\u0FCE\u0FCF\u0FD5-\u0FD8\u109E\u109F\u1390-\u1399\u17DB\u1940\u19DE-\u19FF\u1B61-\u1B6A\u1B74-\u1B7C\u1FBD\u1FBF-\u1FC1\u1FCD-\u1FCF\u1FDD-\u1FDF\u1FED-\u1FEF\u1FFD\u1FFE\u2044\u2052\u207A-\u207C\u208A-\u208C\u20A0-\u20BF\u2100\u2101\u2103-\u2106\u2108\u2109\u2114\u2116-\u2118\u211E-\u2123\u2125\u2127\u2129\u212E\u213A\u213B\u2140-\u2144\u214A-\u214D\u214F\u218A\u218B\u2190-\u2307\u230C-\u2328\u232B-\u2426\u2440-\u244A\u249C-\u24E9\u2500-\u2767\u2794-\u27C4\u27C7-\u27E5\u27F0-\u2982\u2999-\u29D7\u29DC-\u29FB\u29FE-\u2B73\u2B76-\u2B95\u2B98-\u2BC8\u2BCA-\u2BFE\u2CE5-\u2CEA\u2E80-\u2E99\u2E9B-\u2EF3\u2F00-\u2FD5\u2FF0-\u2FFB\u3004\u3012\u3013\u3020\u3036\u3037\u303E\u303F\u309B\u309C\u3190\u3191\u3196-\u319F\u31C0-\u31E3\u3200-\u321E\u322A-\u3247\u3250\u3260-\u327F\u328A-\u32B0\u32C0-\u32FE\u3300-\u33FF\u4DC0-\u4DFF\uA490-\uA4C6\uA700-\uA716\uA720\uA721\uA789\uA78A\uA828-\uA82B\uA836-\uA839\uAA77-\uAA79\uAB5B\uFB29\uFBB2-\uFBC1\uFDFC\uFDFD\uFE62\uFE64-\uFE66\uFE69\uFF04\uFF0B\uFF1C-\uFF1E\uFF3E\uFF40\uFF5C\uFF5E\uFFE0-\uFFE6\uFFE8-\uFFEE\uFFFC\uFFFD]|\uD800[\uDD37-\uDD3F\uDD79-\uDD89\uDD8C-\uDD8E\uDD90-\uDD9B\uDDA0\uDDD0-\uDDFC]|\uD802[\uDC77\uDC78\uDEC8]|\uD805\uDF3F|\uD81A[\uDF3C-\uDF3F\uDF45]|\uD82F\uDC9C|\uD834[\uDC00-\uDCF5\uDD00-\uDD26\uDD29-\uDD64\uDD6A-\uDD6C\uDD83\uDD84\uDD8C-\uDDA9\uDDAE-\uDDE8\uDE00-\uDE41\uDE45\uDF00-\uDF56]|\uD835[\uDEC1\uDEDB\uDEFB\uDF15\uDF35\uDF4F\uDF6F\uDF89\uDFA9\uDFC3]|\uD836[\uDC00-\uDDFF\uDE37-\uDE3A\uDE6D-\uDE74\uDE76-\uDE83\uDE85\uDE86]|\uD83B[\uDCAC\uDCB0\uDEF0\uDEF1]|\uD83C[\uDC00-\uDC2B\uDC30-\uDC93\uDCA0-\uDCAE\uDCB1-\uDCBF\uDCC1-\uDCCF\uDCD1-\uDCF5\uDD10-\uDD6B\uDD70-\uDDAC\uDDE6-\uDE02\uDE10-\uDE3B\uDE40-\uDE48\uDE50\uDE51\uDE60-\uDE65\uDF00-\uDFFF]|\uD83D[\uDC00-\uDED4\uDEE0-\uDEEC\uDEF0-\uDEF9\uDF00-\uDF73\uDF80-\uDFD8]|\uD83E[\uDC00-\uDC0B\uDC10-\uDC47\uDC50-\uDC59\uDC60-\uDC87\uDC90-\uDCAD\uDD00-\uDD0B\uDD10-\uDD3E\uDD40-\uDD70\uDD73-\uDD76\uDD7A\uDD7C-\uDDA2\uDDB0-\uDDB9\uDDC0-\uDDC2\uDDD0-\uDDFF\uDE60-\uDE6D])/

• All Unicode punctuation and symbols, \p{P} and \p{S}:
  • ECMAScript 2018: /[\p{P}\p{S}]/u
  • ES6+:

/[!-\/:-@[-`{-~\u00A1-\u00A9\u00AB\u00AC\u00AE-\u00B1\u00B4\u00B6-\u00B8\u00BB\u00BF\u00D7\u00F7\u02C2-\u02C5\u02D2-\u02DF\u02E5-\u02EB\u02ED\u02EF-\u02FF\u0375\u037E\u0384\u0385\u0387\u03F6\u0482\u055A-\u055F\u0589\u058A\u058D-\u058F\u05BE\u05C0\u05C3\u05C6\u05F3\u05F4\u0606-\u060F\u061B\u061E\u061F\u066A-\u066D\u06D4\u06DE\u06E9\u06FD\u06FE\u0700-\u070D\u07F6-\u07F9\u07FE\u07FF\u0830-\u083E\u085E\u0964\u0965\u0970\u09F2\u09F3\u09FA\u09FB\u09FD\u0A76\u0AF0\u0AF1\u0B70\u0BF3-\u0BFA\u0C7F\u0C84\u0D4F\u0D79\u0DF4\u0E3F\u0E4F\u0E5A\u0E5B\u0F01-\u0F17\u0F1A-\u0F1F\u0F34\u0F36\u0F38\u0F3A-\u0F3D\u0F85\u0FBE-\u0FC5\u0FC7-\u0FCC\u0FCE-\u0FDA\u104A-\u104F\u109E\u109F\u10FB\u1360-\u1368\u1390-\u1399\u1400\u166D\u166E\u169B\u169C\u16EB-\u16ED\u1735\u1736\u17D4-\u17D6\u17D8-\u17DB\u1800-\u180A\u1940\u1944\u1945\u19DE-\u19FF\u1A1E\u1A1F\u1AA0-\u1AA6\u1AA8-\u1AAD\u1B5A-\u1B6A\u1B74-\u1B7C\u1BFC-\u1BFF\u1C3B-\u1C3F\u1C7E\u1C7F\u1CC0-\u1CC7\u1CD3\u1FBD\u1FBF-\u1FC1\u1FCD-\u1FCF\u1FDD-\u1FDF\u1FED-\u1FEF\u1FFD\u1FFE\u2010-\u2027\u2030-\u205E\u207A-\u207E\u208A-\u208E\u20A0-\u20BF\u2100\u2101\u2103-\u2106\u2108\u2109\u2114\u2116-\u2118\u211E-\u2123\u2125\u2127\u2129\u212E\u213A\u213B\u2140-\u2144\u214A-\u214D\u214F\u218A\u218B\u2190-\u2426\u2440-\u244A\u249C-\u24E9\u2500-\u2775\u2794-\u2B73\u2B76-\u2B95\u2B98-\u2BC8\u2BCA-\u2BFE\u2CE5-\u2CEA\u2CF9-\u2CFC\u2CFE\u2CFF\u2D70\u2E00-\u2E2E\u2E30-\u2E4E\u2E80-\u2E99\u2E9B-\u2EF3\u2F00-\u2FD5\u2FF0-\u2FFB\u3001-\u3004\u3008-\u3020\u3030\u3036\u3037\u303D-\u303F\u309B\u309C\u30A0\u30FB\u3190\u3191\u3196-\u319F\u31C0-\u31E3\u3200-\u321E\u322A-\u3247\u3250\u3260-\u327F\u328A-\u32B0\u32C0-\u32FE\u3300-\u33FF\u4DC0-\u4DFF\uA490-\uA4C6\uA4FE\uA4FF\uA60D-\uA60F\uA673\uA67E\uA6F2-\uA6F7\uA700-\uA716\uA720\uA721\uA789\uA78A\uA828-\uA82B\uA836-\uA839\uA874-\uA877\uA8CE\uA8CF\uA8F8-\uA8FA\uA8FC\uA92E\uA92F\uA95F\uA9C1-\uA9CD\uA9DE\uA9DF\uAA5C-\uAA5F\uAA77-\uAA79\uAADE\uAADF\uAAF0\uAAF1\uAB5B\uABEB\uFB29\uFBB2-\uFBC1\uFD3E\uFD3F\uFDFC\uFDFD\uFE10-\uFE19\uFE30-\uFE52\uFE54-\uFE66\uFE68-\uFE6B\uFF01-\uFF0F\uFF1A-\uFF20\uFF3B-\uFF40\uFF5B-\uFF65\uFFE0-\uFFE6\uFFE8-\uFFEE\uFFFC\uFFFD\u{10100}-\u{10102}\u{10137}-\u{1013F}\u{10179}-\u{10189}\u{1018C}-\u{1018E}\u{10190}-\u{1019B}\u{101A0}\u{101D0}-\u{101FC}\u{1039F}\u{103D0}\u{1056F}\u{10857}\u{10877}\u{10878}\u{1091F}\u{1093F}\u{10A50}-\u{10A58}\u{10A7F}\u{10AC8}\u{10AF0}-\u{10AF6}\u{10B39}-\u{10B3F}\u{10B99}-\u{10B9C}\u{10F55}-\u{10F59}\u{11047}-\u{1104D}\u{110BB}\u{110BC}\u{110BE}-\u{110C1}\u{11140}-\u{11143}\u{11174}\u{11175}\u{111C5}-\u{111C8}\u{111CD}\u{111DB}\u{111DD}-\u{111DF}\u{11238}-\u{1123D}\u{112A9}\u{1144B}-\u{1144F}\u{1145B}\u{1145D}\u{114C6}\u{115C1}-\u{115D7}\u{11641}-\u{11643}\u{11660}-\u{1166C}\u{1173C}-\u{1173F}\u{1183B}\u{11A3F}-\u{11A46}\u{11A9A}-\u{11A9C}\u{11A9E}-\u{11AA2}\u{11C41}-\u{11C45}\u{11C70}\u{11C71}\u{11EF7}\u{11EF8}\u{12470}-\u{12474}\u{16A6E}\u{16A6F}\u{16AF5}\u{16B37}-\u{16B3F}\u{16B44}\u{16B45}\u{16E97}-\u{16E9A}\u{1BC9C}\u{1BC9F}\u{1D000}-\u{1D0F5}\u{1D100}-\u{1D126}\u{1D129}-\u{1D164}\u{1D16A}-\u{1D16C}\u{1D183}\u{1D184}\u{1D18C}-\u{1D1A9}\u{1D1AE}-\u{1D1E8}\u{1D200}-\u{1D241}\u{1D245}\u{1D300}-\u{1D356}\u{1D6C1}\u{1D6DB}\u{1D6FB}\u{1D715}\u{1D735}\u{1D74F}\u{1D76F}\u{1D789}\u{1D7A9}\u{1D7C3}\u{1D800}-\u{1D9FF}\u{1DA37}-\u{1DA3A}\u{1DA6D}-\u{1DA74}\u{1DA76}-\u{1DA83}\u{1DA85}-\u{1DA8B}\u{1E95E}\u{1E95F}\u{1ECAC}\u{1ECB0}\u{1EEF0}\u{1EEF1}\u{1F000}-\u{1F02B}\u{1F030}-\u{1F093}\u{1F0A0}-\u{1F0AE}\u{1F0B1}-\u{1F0BF}\u{1F0C1}-\u{1F0CF}\u{1F0D1}-\u{1F0F5}\u{1F110}-\u{1F16B}\u{1F170}-\u{1F1AC}\u{1F1E6}-\u{1F202}\u{1F210}-\u{1F23B}\u{1F240}-\u{1F248}\u{1F250}\u{1F251}\u{1F260}-\u{1F265}\u{1F300}-\u{1F6D4}\u{1F6E0}-\u{1F6EC}\u{1F6F0}-\u{1F6F9}\u{1F700}-\u{1F773}\u{1F780}-\u{1F7D8}\u{1F800}-\u{1F80B}\u{1F810}-\u{1F847}\u{1F850}-\u{1F859}\u{1F860}-\u{1F887}\u{1F890}-\u{1F8AD}\u{1F900}-\u{1F90B}\u{1F910}-\u{1F93E}\u{1F940}-\u{1F970}\u{1F973}-\u{1F976}\u{1F97A}\u{1F97C}-\u{1F9A2}\u{1F9B0}-\u{1F9B9}\u{1F9C0}-\u{1F9C2}\u{1F9D0}-\u{1F9FF}\u{1FA60}-\u{1FA6D}]/u

         ● ES5 (demo):

/(?:[!-\/:-@\[-`\{-~\xA1-\xA9\xAB\xAC\xAE-\xB1\xB4\xB6-\xB8\xBB\xBF\xD7\xF7\u02C2-\u02C5\u02D2-\u02DF\u02E5-\u02EB\u02ED\u02EF-\u02FF\u0375\u037E\u0384\u0385\u0387\u03F6\u0482\u055A-\u055F\u0589\u058A\u058D-\u058F\u05BE\u05C0\u05C3\u05C6\u05F3\u05F4\u0606-\u060F\u061B\u061E\u061F\u066A-\u066D\u06D4\u06DE\u06E9\u06FD\u06FE\u0700-\u070D\u07F6-\u07F9\u07FE\u07FF\u0830-\u083E\u085E\u0964\u0965\u0970\u09F2\u09F3\u09FA\u09FB\u09FD\u0A76\u0AF0\u0AF1\u0B70\u0BF3-\u0BFA\u0C7F\u0C84\u0D4F\u0D79\u0DF4\u0E3F\u0E4F\u0E5A\u0E5B\u0F01-\u0F17\u0F1A-\u0F1F\u0F34\u0F36\u0F38\u0F3A-\u0F3D\u0F85\u0FBE-\u0FC5\u0FC7-\u0FCC\u0FCE-\u0FDA\u104A-\u104F\u109E\u109F\u10FB\u1360-\u1368\u1390-\u1399\u1400\u166D\u166E\u169B\u169C\u16EB-\u16ED\u1735\u1736\u17D4-\u17D6\u17D8-\u17DB\u1800-\u180A\u1940\u1944\u1945\u19DE-\u19FF\u1A1E\u1A1F\u1AA0-\u1AA6\u1AA8-\u1AAD\u1B5A-\u1B6A\u1B74-\u1B7C\u1BFC-\u1BFF\u1C3B-\u1C3F\u1C7E\u1C7F\u1CC0-\u1CC7\u1CD3\u1FBD\u1FBF-\u1FC1\u1FCD-\u1FCF\u1FDD-\u1FDF\u1FED-\u1FEF\u1FFD\u1FFE\u2010-\u2027\u2030-\u205E\u207A-\u207E\u208A-\u208E\u20A0-\u20BF\u2100\u2101\u2103-\u2106\u2108\u2109\u2114\u2116-\u2118\u211E-\u2123\u2125\u2127\u2129\u212E\u213A\u213B\u2140-\u2144\u214A-\u214D\u214F\u218A\u218B\u2190-\u2426\u2440-\u244A\u249C-\u24E9\u2500-\u2775\u2794-\u2B73\u2B76-\u2B95\u2B98-\u2BC8\u2BCA-\u2BFE\u2CE5-\u2CEA\u2CF9-\u2CFC\u2CFE\u2CFF\u2D70\u2E00-\u2E2E\u2E30-\u2E4E\u2E80-\u2E99\u2E9B-\u2EF3\u2F00-\u2FD5\u2FF0-\u2FFB\u3001-\u3004\u3008-\u3020\u3030\u3036\u3037\u303D-\u303F\u309B\u309C\u30A0\u30FB\u3190\u3191\u3196-\u319F\u31C0-\u31E3\u3200-\u321E\u322A-\u3247\u3250\u3260-\u327F\u328A-\u32B0\u32C0-\u32FE\u3300-\u33FF\u4DC0-\u4DFF\uA490-\uA4C6\uA4FE\uA4FF\uA60D-\uA60F\uA673\uA67E\uA6F2-\uA6F7\uA700-\uA716\uA720\uA721\uA789\uA78A\uA828-\uA82B\uA836-\uA839\uA874-\uA877\uA8CE\uA8CF\uA8F8-\uA8FA\uA8FC\uA92E\uA92F\uA95F\uA9C1-\uA9CD\uA9DE\uA9DF\uAA5C-\uAA5F\uAA77-\uAA79\uAADE\uAADF\uAAF0\uAAF1\uAB5B\uABEB\uFB29\uFBB2-\uFBC1\uFD3E\uFD3F\uFDFC\uFDFD\uFE10-\uFE19\uFE30-\uFE52\uFE54-\uFE66\uFE68-\uFE6B\uFF01-\uFF0F\uFF1A-\uFF20\uFF3B-\uFF40\uFF5B-\uFF65\uFFE0-\uFFE6\uFFE8-\uFFEE\uFFFC\uFFFD]|\uD800[\uDD00-\uDD02\uDD37-\uDD3F\uDD79-\uDD89\uDD8C-\uDD8E\uDD90-\uDD9B\uDDA0\uDDD0-\uDDFC\uDF9F\uDFD0]|\uD801\uDD6F|\uD802[\uDC57\uDC77\uDC78\uDD1F\uDD3F\uDE50-\uDE58\uDE7F\uDEC8\uDEF0-\uDEF6\uDF39-\uDF3F\uDF99-\uDF9C]|\uD803[\uDF55-\uDF59]|\uD804[\uDC47-\uDC4D\uDCBB\uDCBC\uDCBE-\uDCC1\uDD40-\uDD43\uDD74\uDD75\uDDC5-\uDDC8\uDDCD\uDDDB\uDDDD-\uDDDF\uDE38-\uDE3D\uDEA9]|\uD805[\uDC4B-\uDC4F\uDC5B\uDC5D\uDCC6\uDDC1-\uDDD7\uDE41-\uDE43\uDE60-\uDE6C\uDF3C-\uDF3F]|\uD806[\uDC3B\uDE3F-\uDE46\uDE9A-\uDE9C\uDE9E-\uDEA2]|\uD807[\uDC41-\uDC45\uDC70\uDC71\uDEF7\uDEF8]|\uD809[\uDC70-\uDC74]|\uD81A[\uDE6E\uDE6F\uDEF5\uDF37-\uDF3F\uDF44\uDF45]|\uD81B[\uDE97-\uDE9A]|\uD82F[\uDC9C\uDC9F]|\uD834[\uDC00-\uDCF5\uDD00-\uDD26\uDD29-\uDD64\uDD6A-\uDD6C\uDD83\uDD84\uDD8C-\uDDA9\uDDAE-\uDDE8\uDE00-\uDE41\uDE45\uDF00-\uDF56]|\uD835[\uDEC1\uDEDB\uDEFB\uDF15\uDF35\uDF4F\uDF6F\uDF89\uDFA9\uDFC3]|\uD836[\uDC00-\uDDFF\uDE37-\uDE3A\uDE6D-\uDE74\uDE76-\uDE83\uDE85-\uDE8B]|\uD83A[\uDD5E\uDD5F]|\uD83B[\uDCAC\uDCB0\uDEF0\uDEF1]|\uD83C[\uDC00-\uDC2B\uDC30-\uDC93\uDCA0-\uDCAE\uDCB1-\uDCBF\uDCC1-\uDCCF\uDCD1-\uDCF5\uDD10-\uDD6B\uDD70-\uDDAC\uDDE6-\uDE02\uDE10-\uDE3B\uDE40-\uDE48\uDE50\uDE51\uDE60-\uDE65\uDF00-\uDFFF]|\uD83D[\uDC00-\uDED4\uDEE0-\uDEEC\uDEF0-\uDEF9\uDF00-\uDF73\uDF80-\uDFD8]|\uD83E[\uDC00-\uDC0B\uDC10-\uDC47\uDC50-\uDC59\uDC60-\uDC87\uDC90-\uDCAD\uDD00-\uDD0B\uDD10-\uDD3E\uDD40-\uDD70\uDD73-\uDD76\uDD7A\uDD7C-\uDDA2\uDDB0-\uDDB9\uDDC0-\uDDC2\uDDD0-\uDDFF\uDE60-\uDE6D])/

Bernadinebernadotte

thanks,it worked ... though is not clear why ...can you make a short explanation? – Mistress

and if i want to look for empty space too? what should i change ? – Mistress

Just add it into the character class. Say, replace [! with [ !, and if your string contains a space it will be matched (the code will return true). – Warfore

No idea what you mean by not working, but it works as I described, see my updated snippet. Updated a bit now. "MyStringContainingNoSpecialChars" does not contain the characters from the set, thus, it returns False. – Warfore

nevermind , it gives the expected result , thank you again – Mistress

this wont work for all special characters... "~" is bypassed. – Byssinosis

@TAHASULTANTEMURI Please check the OP - there is no ~ char in the original regex. Of course it won't check all special chars, because people consider different chars to be special. What about й? Some will say it is special, but it is not for me. In some cases, _ is considered special, too, though it is a word char (matched with \w). If we are to match all Unicode special chars in JS, I'd use [^\p{L}\p{N}] in ECMAScript 2018 compatible browsers, or use XRegExp with this pattern. – Warfore

@TAHASULTANTEMURI FYI, I added some more specific solutions. – Warfore

@TAHASULTANTEMURI Ok, I think it makes sense to add all ASCII symbols/punctuation (with literal space) into the top solution. I updated the answer, please consider removing the comment. – Warfore

about backslash "\" ? – Spheroid

Answer 2

Your regexp use ^ and $ so it tries to match the entire string. And if you want only a boolean as the result, use test instead of match.

var format = /[!@#$%^&*()_+\-=\[\]{};':"\\|,.<>\/?]+/;

if(format.test(string)){
  return true;
} else {
  return false;
}

Chimere

Why do you use if statement? It returns true/false by default, so you don't need it – Addax

Answer 3

Wouldn't it be easier to negative-match alphanumerics instead?

return string.match(/^[^a-zA-Z0-9]+$/) ? true : false;

Leannaleanne

"... return true if the string contains atleast one [special character] ..." – Acetify

Indeed, a bad question conflicting with itself = (. – Acetify

Fixed my answer, should make more sense now. – Leannaleanne

since more than half of the planet uses chars that are not alphabet. Chinese for example, japanese, cyrilic, sanscrit, etc... please never do this its bad. – Sparrowgrass

I am using only the English alphabet so made my life easier thanks :-) – Glume

I am looking for a solution for password complexity check, in that purpose, any non-alphanumeric character would probably contribute the same complexity "score" anyway, so this might be one use case where this solution is applicable – Mohammedmohammedan

Answer 4

var specialChars = "<>@!#$%^&*()_+[]{}?:;|'\"\\,./~`-=";
var checkForSpecialChar = function(string){
 for(i = 0; i < specialChars.length;i++){
   if(string.indexOf(specialChars[i]) > -1){
       return true
    }
 }
 return false;
}

var str = "YourText";
if(checkForSpecialChar(str)){
  alert("Not Valid");
} else {
    alert("Valid");
}

Deanndeanna

Answer 5

Remove the characters ^ (start of string) and $ (end of string) from the regular expression.

var format = /[!@#$%^&*()_+\-=\[\]{};':"\\|,.<>\/?]/;

Buckie

Answer 6

I just did this,

if(string.match(/\W/)){
    return true;    // Contains at least one special character or space
} else {
    return false;
}

Ormsby

Answer 7

Check if a string contains at least one password special character:

For reference: ASCII Table -- Printable Characters

Special character ranges in the ASCII table are:

• Space to /
• : to @
• [ to `
• { to ~

Therefore, use this:

/[ -/:-@[-`{-~]/.test(string)

Varner

Answer 8

Simple solution

let text = "12AB"
const specialChars = `/[!@#$%^&*()_+\-=\[\]{};':"\\|,.<>\/?]+/;`

const isSpecialCharsPresent = specialChars.split('').some(char => 
text.includes(char)) // true if present and false if not

console.log(isSpecialCharsPresent) // false

let text = "12AB."
console.log(isSpecialCharsPresent) // true

Jessy

Answer 9

var format = /[`!@#$%^&*()_+\-=\[\]{};':"\\|,.<>\/?~]/;
//            ^                                       ^   
document.write(format.test("My @string-with(some%text)") + "<br/>");
document.write(format.test("My string with spaces") + "<br/>");
document.write(format.test("My StringContainingNoSpecialChars"));

Veracity

Answer 10

You can use this regex for specials chars : /\W/

Commoner

Answer 11

function containsSpecialChars(str) {
    // Regular expression to match special characters
    const specialChars = /[`!@#$%^&*()_+\-=\[\]{};':"\\|,.<>\/?~]/;
    
    // Check if the string contains any special characters
    return specialChars.test(str);
}

// Example usage:
console.log(containsSpecialChars('hello!'));  // Output: true
console.log(containsSpecialChars('abc'));     // Output: false
console.log(containsSpecialChars('one two')); // Output: false

Ceilometer

Answer 12

when need a prototype you can use this one:

String.prototype.replaceAll = function (from, to) {
var str = this;
var special_chars = /[!@#$%^&*()_+\-=\[\]{};':"\\|,.<>\/?]+/;
from.forEach((x) => {
    //escape any special chars
    x = special_chars.test(x) ? "\\" + x : x;
    str = str.replace(new RegExp(x, "g"), to);
});
return str;};

@example: "Hello?, Wor.ld!".replaceAll([",", ".", "?", "!"], ""); // 'Hello World'

Masturbate

Answer 13

I took an alternative approuch, without using REGEX, O(n) in performence:

function hasSpecialChars(str) {
  const specialCharsSet = new Set("!@#$%^&*()_");
  for (let letter of str) {
    if (specialCharsSet.has(letter)) {
      return true;
    }
  }
  return false;
}

Alethaalethea

Answer 14

You can try this:

regex = [\W_]

It will definitely help you.

Hairball

Please give more information that why \W should be used? \W - non words (includes white spaces?) – Mariellemariellen