Check if String contains Special Characters in JavaScript

Check if String contains Special Characters #

To check if a string contains special characters, call the test() method on a regular expression that matches any special character. The test method will return true if the string contains at least 1 special character and false otherwise.

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function containsSpecialChars(str) {
  const specialChars = /[`!@#$%^&*()_+\-=\[\]{};':"\\|,.<>\/?~]/;
  return specialChars.test(str);
}

console.log(containsSpecialChars('hello!')); // 👉️ true
console.log(containsSpecialChars('abc')); // 👉️ false
console.log(containsSpecialChars('one two')); // 👉️ false

if (containsSpecialChars('hello!')) {
  console.log('✅ string contains special characters');
} else {
  console.log('⛔️ string does NOT contain special characters');
}

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// 👇️ with space as special character
//                     👇️
const specialChars = /[ `!@#$%^&*()_+\-=\[\]{};':"\\|,.<>\/?~]/;

We used the RegExp.test method to check if a string contains special characters.

The method returns true if the regular expression is matched in the string and false otherwise.

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

The square brackets [] are called a character class and match any of the characters between the brackets.

If you're not a big fan of regular expression, you could use the some method instead.

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

  const result = specialChars.split('').some(specialChar => {
    if (str.includes(specialChar)) {
      return true;
    }

    return false;
  });

  return result;
}

console.log(containsSpecialChars('hello')); // 👉️ false
console.log(containsSpecialChars('hello!')); // 👉️ true

In this code snippet, we use the split method to split the string containing the special characters into an array.

Then we use the some method to iterate over the array.

We check if each special character is included in the string. If the string contains at least 1 special character, we return true and the some method short-circuits.

Further Reading #

• Remove Special Characters from a String in JavaScript
• Check if String contains only Letters and Numbers in JS
• Check if String contains only Letters and Spaces in JS
• Check if String contains only Latin Letters in JavaScript
• Check if String contains only Digits in JavaScript
• Check if String contains only Spaces in JavaScript
• Check if String contains only Letters in JavaScript
• Check if a String is all Uppercase in JavaScript
• Check if a String ends with a Number in JavaScript
• Check if String starts with Substring in JavaScript
• Check if String contains any Letter in JavaScript