In Python, how to check if a string only contains certain characters?

Question

I need to check a string containing only a..z, 0..9, and . (period) and no other character.

I could iterate over each character and check the character is a..z or 0..9, or . but that would be slow.

I am not clear now how to do it with a regular expression.

Is this correct? Can you suggest a simpler regular expression or a more efficient approach.

#Valid chars . a-z 0-9 
def check(test_str):
    import re
    #http://docs.python.org/library/re.html
    #re.search returns None if no position in the string matches the pattern
    #pattern to search for any character other then . a-z 0-9
    pattern = r'[^\.a-z0-9]'
    if re.search(pattern, test_str):
        #Character other then . a-z 0-9 was found
        print 'Invalid : %r' % (test_str,)
    else:
        #No character other then . a-z 0-9 was found
        print 'Valid   : %r' % (test_str,)

check(test_str='abcde.1')
check(test_str='abcde.1#')
check(test_str='ABCDE.12')
check(test_str='_-/>"!@#12345abcde<')

'''
Output:
>>> 
Valid   : "abcde.1"
Invalid : "abcde.1#"
Invalid : "ABCDE.12"
Invalid : "_-/>"!@#12345abcde<"
'''

user_1208941 · Answer

Use python Sets when you need to compare hm... sets of data. Strings can be represented as sets of characters quite fast. Here I test if string is allowed phone number. First string is allowed, second not. Works fast and simple.

In [17]: timeit.Timer("allowed = set('0123456789+-() ');p = set('+7(898) 64-901-63 ');p.issubset(allowed)").timeit()

Out[17]: 0.8106249139964348

In [18]: timeit.Timer("allowed = set('0123456789+-() ');p = set('+7(950) 64-901-63 фыв');p.issubset(allowed)").timeit()

Out[18]: 0.9240323599951807

Never use regexps if you can avoid them.

user_1005334 · Answer

A different approach, because in my case I needed to also check whether it contained certain words (like 'test' in this example), not characters alone:

input_string = 'abc test'
input_string_test = input_string
allowed_list = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'test', ' ']

for allowed_list_item in allowed_list:
    input_string_test = input_string_test.replace(allowed_list_item, '')

if not input_string_test:
    # test passed

So, the allowed strings (char or word) are cut from the input string. If the input string only contained strings that were allowed, it should leave an empty string and therefore should pass if not input_string.

user_19054044 · Answer

allowed_characters = 'hsjwnbs#'
def isValidName(string,allowed_chars):
  allowed_chars = set((allowed_chars))
  validation = set((string))
  return validation.issubset(allowed_chars)

user_13116400 · Answer

Since version re 3,4 it is much easier. Use fullmatch function.

import re
----
pattern = r'[^\.a-z0-9]'
result = re.fullmatch(pattern,string)
if result:
   return True
else
   return False

In Python, how to check if a string only contains certain characters?

9 Answers