checking if a string has special characters [duplicate]

Question

how would i check a string for special characters such as $%#, and numbers? I only want chars, ex abcd.

the only method i can think of is to make an arraylist of the alphabet and check each index to see if it is in the arraylist.

thanks

Answer 1

RegEx is probably your best bet:

 Pattern p = Pattern.compile("[a-zA-Z]");
 Matcher m = p.matcher(sourceString);
 boolean b = m.matches();