Python | Extract only characters from given string

Last Updated : 03 Apr, 2019

Given a string, the task is to extract only alphabetical characters from a string. Given below are few methods to solve the given problem.

Method #1: Using re.split

# Python code to demonstrate 
# to get characters from string 
import re 
  
# initialising string 
ini_string = "123()#$ABGFDabcjw"
ini_string2 = "abceddfgh"
  
# printing strings 
print ("initial string : ", ini_string, ini_string2) 
  
# code to find characters in string 
res1 = " ".join(re.split("[^a-zA-Z]*", ini_string)) 
res2 = " ".join(re.split("[^a-zA-Z]*", ini_string2)) 
  
# printing resultant string 
print ("first string result: ", str(res1)) 
print ("second string result: ", str(res2)) 

Output:

initial string :  123()#$ABGFDabcjw abceddfgh
first string result:   ABGFDabcjw
second string result:  abceddfgh

Method #2: Using re.fidall

# Python code to demonstrate 
# to get characters in string 
import re 
  
# initialising string 
ini_string = "123()#$ABGFDabcjw"
ini_string2 = "abceddfgh"
  
# printing strings 
print ("initial string : \n", ini_string, "\n", ini_string2) 
  
# code to find characters in string 
res1 = " ".join(re.findall("[a-zA-Z]+", ini_string)) 
res2 = " ".join(re.findall("[a-zA-Z]+", ini_string2)) 
  
# printing resultant string 
print ("first string result: ", str(res1)) 
print ("second string result: ", str(res2)) 

Output:

initial string : 
 123()#$ABGFDabcjw 
 abceddfgh

first string result:  ABGFDabcjw
second string result:  abceddfgh

Method #3: Using isalpha()

# Python code to demonstrate 
# to get characters in a string 
# if present 
  
# initialising string 
ini_string = "123()#$ABGFDabcjw"
  
# printing string and its length 
print ("initial string : ", ini_string) 
  
# code to find characters in string 
res1 = "" 
for i in ini_string: 
    if i.isalpha(): 
        res1 = "".join([res1, i]) 
  
  
# printing resultant string 
print ("first result: ", str(res1)) 

Output:

initial string :  123()#$ABGFDabcjw
first result:  ABGFDabcjw

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