How can I validate a string to only allow alphanumeric characters in it?

Question

How can I validate a string using Regular Expressions to only allow alphanumeric characters in it?

(I don\'t want to allow for any spaces either).

Answer 1

While I think the regex-based solution is probably the way I'd go, I'd be tempted to encapsulate this in a type.

public class AlphaNumericString
{
    public AlphaNumericString(string s)
    {
        Regex r = new Regex("^[a-zA-Z0-9]*$");
        if (r.IsMatch(s))
        {
            value = s;                
        }
        else
        {
            throw new ArgumentException("Only alphanumeric characters may be used");
        }
    }

    private string value;
    static public implicit operator string(AlphaNumericString s)
    {
        return s.value;
    }
}

Now, when you need a validated string, you can have the method signature require an AlphaNumericString, and know that if you get one, it is valid (apart from nulls). If someone attempts to pass in a non-validated string, it will generate a compiler error.

You can get fancier and implement all of the equality operators, or an explicit cast to AlphaNumericString from plain ol' string, if you care.