java - Remove special characters and numbers from a string but ignore the white spaces between the words?

Question

I want a java regex that could convert this simple sentence like this:

1) I am a (happy) person!!!

into

I am a happy person.

i.e. ignore all the numbers and special characters but ignore the white space between the words.

I am using this regex right now:

("\P{L}", "")

but it is giving a output like:

Iamahappyperson

Thanks for your help!!

Answer 1

Use this regex [^p{Alpha} ]

• p{Alpha} An alphabetic character:[p{Lower}p{Upper}]
• [^p{Alpha} ] All character except alphabetic and space

Here is how you can use this :

System.out.println("1) I am a (happy) person!!!".replaceAll("[^\p{Alpha} ]", ""));

If you want to keep unicode alphabet character add just add (?U) at the start of the above regex.Here (?U) turn on UNICODE_CHARACTER_CLASS flag