Unstructured Text
Remove Special Characters
Remove symbols, emoji and other special characters so that only letters, numbers and spaces remain.
When to use it
Typical uses: Creating safe file names or usernames; Preparing text for systems that only accept alphanumeric input; Removing emoji and decorative symbols from social media text.
In a pipeline
Text InputRemove Special CharactersText Output
Settings
| Setting | Type | Required | Default or hint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text column | select | — | Text |
| Keep basic punctuation ( . , ! ? ' - ) | checkbox | — | false |
| Generate New Column | checkbox | — | false |
| New Column Name | text | — | Default: <column> Result |
| Insert After | select | — | After the column |
| When a value cannot be converted | select | — | stop |
Example
Remove Special Characters: an example
| Text |
|---|
| Hello, World! ★ Price: $49.99 (20% off) #deal 😀 Café |
| Text |
|---|
| Hello World Price 4999 20 off deal Café |
Worth knowing
- Are accented letters removed? No. Letters with accents, and letters from non-Latin alphabets, count as letters and are kept. If you need plain ASCII, use Remove Non-ASCII Characters.
- Are line breaks kept? Yes. Spaces, tabs and line breaks are all kept.
- What counts as a special character? Anything that is not a letter, a digit or whitespace. That includes punctuation, currency signs, maths symbols, arrows and emoji.
- Works on any text column, not only Text Input's: pick it under Text column. Tick Generate New Column to keep the original next to the result.