import re
re.sub('[^A-Za-z0-9]+', '', mystring)
import re
# only remove special charactors but not white spaces
re.sub('[^A-Za-z0-9]+ ', '', mystring)
# remove special charactors and white spaces as well
re.sub('[^A-Za-z0-9]+', '', mystring)
>>> string = "Special $#! characters spaces 888323"
>>> ''.join(e for e in string if e.isalnum())
'Specialcharactersspaces888323'
import re
my_list= ["on@3", "two#", "thre%e"]
print [re.sub('[^a-zA-Z0-9]+', '', _) for _ in my_list]
text = "I! want, to? eat."
chars = ".!,?"
for i in range(len(chars)): #can't use len() alone b/c int obj is not iterable
text = text.replace(chars[i], "")
print(text) #I want to eat
''.join(i for i in string if i.isaplha()