Invalid filename characters and REPLACE functions 1

[AnonGod]

Hello!

I let users update a text field in a database to have any characters they want. Later I pull the name they entered and look for an image matching the name they entered.

Now there are reserved characters that you cannot use in a filename, so I want to strip them out of the name when I go and look for it. But these are allowed in my database. The reserved list is (so windows explorer says):
\ / : * ? " < > |

Is there a built in asp/vbs function I can use to strip these out or am I looking at 9 replace functions?

Thanks!
-Andrew

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[DotNetGnat]

look at Regex() function...i mean regular expressions...

-DNG

 

[DotNetGnat]

http://www.regular-expressions.info/

http://sitescooper.org/tao_regexps.html

-DNG

 

[Sheco]

Regular expressions are a powerful way to do it.

If you just want a cheap dirty hack you could do this:

Dim strBad, iCount
strBad = "\/:*?"<>|"
For iCount = 0 to Len(strNewFileName)
 if instr(strBad, mid(strNewFileName, iCount, 1)) then
  strNewFileName = Left(strNewFileName, iCount - 1) _
                 & Mid(strNewFileName, iCount + 1)
 end if
Next

 

[Sheco]

Hmm, now that I look at it perhaps that loop that I just posted would miss the case of more than one invalid characters in a row.

 

[DotNetGnat]

Sheco,

Cant he just consider using [^a-zA-Z_0-9] to avoid the non alphanumeric characters...

AnonGod...also take a look at this link...

http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/031500-1.2.shtml

-DNG

 

[Sheco]

Oh I don't mean to discourage learning Regular expessions.

I was just trying to show a way to use a loop with an instr.

Here is a way to do it without having to worry about 2 bad characters in a row:

Dim strBad, iCount, ThisCharacter strKeepers
strBad = "\/:*?"<>|"
For iCount = 0 to Len(strNewFileName)
 ThisCharacter = mid(strNewFileName, iCount, 1)
 if Not cBool(instr(strBad, ThisCharacter)) then
  strKeepers = strKeepers & ThisCharacter 
 end if
Next

Instead of cutting out the bad characters, it does the opposite and keeps only the good ones.

 

[AnonGod]

Wow, powerful stuff, thanks!

-Andrew

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[AnonGod]

Here's what I came up with - It appears to be working. Is there anything that I maybe didn't do or should be aware of? Maybe a quicker way to include all the characters I DO want to allow.

Thanks for the help.

-Andrew

Dim objRegExp, str
Set objRegExp = New RegExp

str = "This Is|A=Test+Name-OK?_Good...~`:)"

objRegExp.Pattern = "[^a-zA-Z_0-9\=\+\-\.\`\~\!\@\#\$\%\^\&\(\)]"
objRegExp.Global = True
msgbox(str)
str = objRegExp.Replace(str,"")
msgbox(str)

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[DotNetGnat]

Looks good to me...

also i would suggest you to take a look at this tool...its free..download it and play with it...you can learn a lot about regular expressions...

http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/expresso.asp

-DNG

 

[AnonGod]

Excellent, thank you.

-Andrew

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