Deleting all characters in a string that do not belong to a small set of elements

Question

Say I have a string {100 aa bbc%j%b%wa ajjcj11j0%2wj fc} with a lot of undesired characters or spaces in it, for example: {" ", "%", "w", "j"}. I'd like to strip the string of these characters, with the provided example giving us the output string:

testString = "100 aa bbc%j%b%wa ajjcj11j0%2wj fc";
StringReplace[testString, {" ", "%", "w", "j"} -> ""]

out: "100aabbcbaac1102fc";

Now, say we don't have a convenient list of undesired characters / spaces / paragraph indicators / etc. Is there a way to select for certain characters instead of specifying that certain characters should be deleted (as in the example)?

@b.gatessucks Ah, you have to double click to select the full alphanumeric string, and I wasn't paying enough attention! — Bob2Alice, Apr 01 '14 at 07:36

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 01 '14 at 07:38

2

testString = "100 aa bbc%j%b%wa ajjcj11j0%2wj fc";
StringJoin@StringCases[testString, {"a", "j", "c", " "}]

(* aa cja ajjcjjj c *)

The second argument for StringCases can use character ranges, etc.

As to "bulk" but specific upcase/downcase, something like:

StringReplace[%, (# -> ToUpperCase[#]) & /@ {"c", "j"}]

(*  aa CJa aJJCJJJ C *)

answered Apr 01 '14 at 07:38

ciao

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This is terrific, thank you. – Bob2Alice Apr 01 '14 at 07:39
Also works with StringSplit. – b.gates.you.know.what Apr 01 '14 at 07:45
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@b.gatessucks: Good idea- you should post as an answer, I think the more examples of different ways, the better. – ciao Apr 01 '14 at 07:46

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 01 '14 at 08:11

2

Another way using RegularExpression

StringReplace[testString, RegularExpression["[^ajc ]"] :> ""]

Gives:

 aa cja ajjcjjj c

answered Apr 01 '14 at 08:11

RunnyKine

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Deleting all characters in a string that do not belong to a small set of elements

2 Answers2