How to remove illegal characters from path and filenames?

c#, directory, path, string

Solution

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.

Problem

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(); } } } ```

Original source

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