Regex test failing - Java

Question

I'm attempting a simple regex execution. Essentially I want to determine if I've got special characters in my string and if so check each character of the string for two specific characters i.e. hypen and dot.

I seem to be having a problem in the first bit which involves determining if I've got special characters in my string.

Below is my method which I attempt to do this followed by the strings I'm having issues with:

public static boolean stringValidity(String input) {
    int specials = 0;

    Pattern p = Pattern.compile("[^a-zA-Z0-9 ]");
    Matcher m = p.matcher(input);
    boolean b = m.find();

    if (b) {
        System.out.println("\nstringValidity - There is a special character in my string");

        for (int i = 0; i < input.length(); ++i) {

           char ch = input.charAt(i);

           //if (!Character.isDigit(ch) && !Character.isLetter(ch) && !Character.isSpace(ch)) {
              ++specials;

              System.out.println("\nstringValidity - Latest number of special characters is: " + specials);

              if((ch == '-') | (ch == '.')) {
                  specialCharValidity = true;

                  System.out.println("\nstringValidity - CHAR is valid - specialCharValidity is: " + specialCharValidity + " as char is: " + ch);
              } else {
                  specialCharValidity = false;

                  System.out.println("\nstringValidity - CHAR is invalid - specialCharValidity is: " + specialCharValidity + " as char is: " + ch);

                  break;
              }
           //}
        }
    } else {
        System.out.println("\nstringValidity - There is NO special character in my string");

        specialCharValidity = true;
    }

    return specialCharValidity;
}

Below are strings I passed to the method which I expected to be considered as strings with special characters but the test failed:

"QWERTY"!£$"£$"
"sdfGSDFGSDFG%*^(%*&("

Below are strings I passed to the method which I expected NOT to be considered as strings with special characters but the test failed:

"QWE12342134RTY"
"LOREMIPSUM2354214"

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Answer 1

You can simplify your code by checking the string against the following pattern:

[^a-zA-Z0-9 \-\.]

The string validity function boils down to:

public static boolean stringValidity(String input) 
{
    return Pattern.compile("[^a-zA-Z0-9 \\-\\.]").matcher(input).find() == false;
}