How do I block or restrict special characters from input fields with jquery?

A simple example using a regular expression which you could change to allow/disallow whatever you like.

$('input').on('keypress', function (event) {
    var regex = new RegExp("^[a-zA-Z0-9]+$");
    var key = String.fromCharCode(!event.charCode ? event.which : event.charCode);
    if (!regex.test(key)) {
       event.preventDefault();
       return false;
    }
});