howto combine regex special sequences?

[Graham Guttocks]

Greetings,

I'm trying to compile a regex so that I can test whether a string
contains characters other than alphanumeric or whitespace.

I'm currently using this which seems to work:

  regex = re.compile(r'[^a-zA-Z0-9_ \t\n\r\f\v]')

I'd like to use the special sequences "\W" and "\S" for brevity
however.  How can I rewrite the above regex using them instead?

I thought the following would work, but it doesn't:

  regex = re.compile(r'\W\S')

Another question: is there an easier/faster way to test whether a
string contains characters other than alphanumeric or whitespace
without using the re module, or am I on the right track?

Regards,
Graham


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