How to remove illegal characters from path and fil

Question

I need a robust and simple way to remove illegal path and file characters from a simple string. I've used the below code but it doesn't seem to do anything, what am I missing?

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string illegal = "\"M<>\"\\a/ry/ h**ad:>> a\\/:*?\"<>| li*tt|le|| la\"mb.?";

            illegal = illegal.Trim(Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars());
            illegal = illegal.Trim(Path.GetInvalidPathChars());

            Console.WriteLine(illegal);
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

Try something like this instead;

string illegal = "\"M\"\\a/ry/ h**ad:>> a\\/:*?\"| li*tt|le|| la\"mb.?";
string invalid = new string(Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars()) + new string(Path.GetInvalidPathChars());

foreach (char c in invalid)
{
    illegal = illegal.Replace(c.ToString(), ""); 
}

But I have to agree with the comments, I'd probably try to deal with the source of the illegal paths, rather than try to mangle an illegal path into a legitimate but probably unintended one.

Edit: Or a potentially 'better' solution, using Regex's.

string illegal = "\"M\"\\a/ry/ h**ad:>> a\\/:*?\"| li*tt|le|| la\"mb.?";
string regexSearch = new string(Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars()) + new string(Path.GetInvalidPathChars());
Regex r = new Regex(string.Format("[{0}]", Regex.Escape(regexSearch)));
illegal = r.Replace(illegal, "");

Still, the question begs to be asked, why you're doing this in the first place.

Answer 2

public static class StringExtensions
      {
        public static string RemoveUnnecessary(this string source)
        {
            string result = string.Empty;
            string regex = new string(Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars()) + new string(Path.GetInvalidPathChars());
            Regex reg = new Regex(string.Format("[{0}]", Regex.Escape(regex)));
            result = reg.Replace(source, "");
            return result;
        }
    }

You can use method clearly.

Answer 3

I think the question already not full answered... The answers only describe clean filename OR path... not both. Here is my solution:

private static string CleanPath(string path)
{
    string regexSearch = new string(Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars()) + new string(Path.GetInvalidPathChars());
    Regex r = new Regex(string.Format("[{0}]", Regex.Escape(regexSearch)));
    List<string> split = path.Split('\\').ToList();
    string returnValue = split.Aggregate(string.Empty, (current, s) => current + (r.Replace(s, "") + @"\"));
    returnValue = returnValue.TrimEnd('\\');
    return returnValue;
}

Answer 4

I created an extension method that combines several suggestions:

1. Holding illegal characters in a hash set
2. Filtering out characters below ascii 127. Since Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars does not include all invalid characters possible with ascii codes from 0 to 255. See here and MSDN
3. Possiblity to define the replacement character

Source:

public static class FileNameCorrector
{
    private static HashSet<char> invalid = new HashSet<char>(Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars());

    public static string ToValidFileName(this string name, char replacement = '\0')
    {
        var builder = new StringBuilder();
        foreach (var cur in name)
        {
            if (cur > 31 && cur < 128 && !invalid.Contains(cur))
            {
                builder.Append(cur);
            }
            else if (replacement != '\0')
            {
                builder.Append(replacement);
            }
        }

        return builder.ToString();
    }
}

Answer 5

Throw an exception.

if ( fileName.IndexOfAny(Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars()) > -1 )
            {
                throw new ArgumentException();
            }

Answer 6

I absolutely prefer the idea of Jeff Yates. It will work perfectly, if you slightly modify it:

string regex = String.Format("[{0}]", Regex.Escape(new string(Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars())));
Regex removeInvalidChars = new Regex(regex, RegexOptions.Singleline | RegexOptions.Compiled | RegexOptions.CultureInvariant);

The improvement is just to escape the automaticially generated regex.