Regex to match alphanumeric and spaces

Question

What am I doing wrong here?

string q = "john s!"; string clean = Regex.Replace(q, @"([^a-zA-Z0-9]|^\s)", string.Empty); // clean == "johns". I want "john s"; 

Answer 1

just a FYI

string clean = Regex.Replace(q, @"[^a-zA-Z0-9\s]", string.Empty); 

would actually be better like

string clean = Regex.Replace(q, @"[^\w\s]", string.Empty);