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.