In this post, we will look at how to accept String using scanner and count the number of special characters in it.

Logic:

Let’s see how to do it.

We classify a character as a special char when,

• It is not an alphabet, this includes both upper and lower case
• It is not a digit

Program to count Special Character

import java.util.Scanner;

// Java code to demonstrate
// how to count special
// characters in a string using scanner
public class SpecialCharacterCounter {

        public static void main(String[] args) {
                // create the scanner
                Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
                System.out.println("Enter the string with special character = ");

                // scan the input string
                String input = scanner.nextLine();

                int counter = 0;

                for (int i = 0; i < input.length(); i++) {
                        // check if the given character
                        // is a special character
                        if (isSpecialChar(input.charAt(i))) {
                                counter++;
                        }
                }
                System.out.println("Count of special character = " + counter);

                // close the scanner
                scanner.close();
        }

        // returns true if the input
        // is a special character
        public static boolean isSpecialChar(char ch) {
                boolean isSpecialChar;
                // check if ch is alphabet
                if ((ch >= 'a' && ch <= 'z') || (ch >= 'A' && ch <= 'Z')) {
                        isSpecialChar = false;
                } else if (ch >= '0' && ch <= '9') {
                        isSpecialChar = false;
                } else {
                        // passed character is a
                        // special character
                        // as it is neither alphabet
                        // nor digit
                        isSpecialChar = true;
                }
                return isSpecialChar;
        }
}

Output:

Enter the string with special character = 
This%is@a$String*With&Special^Character
Count of special character = 6