You can use the following methods to replace special characters in a string in PowerShell:
Method 1: Remove everything except letters
$new_string = $my_string -replace ('[^a-zA-Z]', '')
Method 2: Remove everything except letters and numbers
$new_string = $my_string -replace ('[^a-zA-Z]\d', '')
Method 3: Remove specific special characters
$new_string = $my_string -replace ('[!$%#]', '')
The following examples show how to use each method in practice.
Example 1: Remove Everything Except Letters in String in PowerShell
Suppose that we would like to use PowerShell to remove everything from a string except for alphabetical letters.
We can use the following syntax to do so:
$my_string = '4P%enny$)~^Lane#-3!'
$new_string = $my_string -replace ('[^a-zA-Z]', '')
$new_string
The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:
Notice that all characters except for alphabetical letters have been removed from the string.
The original string was: 4P%enny$)~^Lane#-3!
The new string is: PennyLane
Example 2: Remove Everything Except Letters and Numbers in String in PowerShell
Suppose that we would like to use PowerShell to remove everything from a string except for alphabetical letters and numbers.
We can use the following syntax to do so:
$my_string = '4P%enny$)~^Lane#-3'
$new_string = $my_string -replace ('[^a-zA-Z\d]', '')
$new_string
The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:
Notice that all characters except for alphabetical letters and numbers have been removed from the string.
The original string was: 4P%enny$)~^Lane#-3!
The new string is: 4PennyLane3
Example 3: Remove Specific Special Characters in String in PowerShell
Suppose that we would like to use PowerShell to remove the following special characters from a string:
- !
- $
- %
- #
We can use the following syntax to do so:
$my_string = '4P%enny$)~^Lane#-3'
$new_string = $my_string -replace ('[!$%#]', '')
$new_string
The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:
Notice that only the four special characters that we specified have been removed from the string.
The original string was: 4P%enny$)~^Lane#-3!
The new string is: 4Penny)~^Lane-3
Related Tutorials
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in PowerShell:
PowerShell: How to Replace Every Occurrence of String in File
PowerShell: How to Replace Text in String
PowerShell: How to Concatenate Strings
