You need to create a regex object
var answer = "Test. ,replace"
println(answer)
answer = answer.replace("[^A-Za-z0-9 ]", "") // doesn't work
println(answer)
val re = Regex("[^A-Za-z0-9 ]")
answer = re.replace(answer, "") // works
println(answer)
Try it online: https://try.kotlinlang.org/#/UserProjects/ttqm0r6lisi743f2dltveid1u9/2olerk6jvb10l03q6bkk1lapjn