Regex that allows special chars?

Question

The below regex requires that the password has 1 number, 1 char (upper or lower) and is a minimum of 8 in length. But if I type in a special char it returns false. I don't want to require a special char, but i want to allow it in this context. How can I alter this regex to allow a special char?

Regex.IsMatch(Password, "^(?=.*[0-9])(?=.*[a-zA-Z])\w{8,}$")

Answer 1

Regex.IsMatch(Password, "^(?=.*[0-9])(?=.*[a-zA-Z]).{8,}$")

Answer 2

Changing "\w" to "." should do it:

Regex.IsMatch(Password, "^(?=.*[0-9])(?=.*[a-zA-Z]).{8,}$")

\w matches "word" characters, which won't normally match special characters (depending on your definition of "special" and the language you're using).
. will match any character except newline

Answer 3

Why not do 3 separate checks, that way you can clearly check if the password meets the required parameters but without having to maintain a large Regex?

if (Regex.IsMatch(Password, "\d") &&
    Regex.IsMatch(Password, "\w") &&
    Password.length >= 8) //psuedo-code

This won't restrict any characters. It checks that the password has at least one word character, at least one number, and is at least 8 characters long.

Answer 4

Toran, if you do not want to permit whitespace in your password use the following:

Regex.IsMatch(Password, "^(?=.*[0-9])(?=.*[a-zA-Z]\S{8,}$")