Check if String contains any Letters in JavaScript

Check if String contains any Letters #

To check if a string contains any letters, use the test() method with the following regular expression /[a-zA-Z]/. The test method will return true if the string contains at least one letter and false otherwise.

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function containsAnyLetters(str) {
  return /[a-zA-Z]/.test(str);
}

console.log(containsAnyLetters('abc123')); // 👉️ true
console.log(containsAnyLetters('ABC')); // 👉️ true
console.log(containsAnyLetters('123')); // 👉️ false
console.log(containsAnyLetters(' ')); // 👉️ false

if (containsAnyLetters('hello')) {
  // 👇️ this runs
  console.log('✅ string contains a letter');
} else {
  console.log('⛔️ string does NOT contain a letter');
}

We used the RegExp.test method to check if a string contains at least 1 letter.

The forward slashes / / mark the beginning and end of the regular expression.

The square brackets [] are called a character class. In the character class we match 2 ranges:

• all lowercase letters a-z
• all uppercase letters A-Z

If you ever need help reading a regular expression, bookmark this regex cheatsheet from MDN.

Instead of using 2 ranges for lowercase and uppercase letters, we can also perform a case-insensitive match by using the i flag.

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function containsAnyLetters(str) {
  // 👇️ using the `i` flag
  return /[a-z]/i.test(str);
}

console.log(containsAnyLetters('A1')); // 👉️ true
console.log(containsAnyLetters('! !')); // 👉️ true

if (containsAnyLetters('abc123')) {
  // 👇️ this runs
  console.log('✅ string contains a letter');
} else {
  console.log('⛔️ string does NOT contain a letter');
}

Instead of using the range of uppercase letters A-Z, we used the i flag for case-insensitive search.

This achieves the same result, so it's a matter of personal preference which solution you find more readable and intuitive.

Further Reading #

• Check if String contains Special Characters in JavaScript
• Check if String contains Whitespace in JavaScript