Is there a way of making strings file-path safe in c#?

Ugh, I hate it when people try to guess at which characters are valid. Besides being completely non-portable (always thinking about Mono), both of the earlier comments missed more 25 invalid characters.

foreach (var c in Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars()) 
{ 
  fileName = fileName.Replace(c, '-'); 
}

Or in VB:

'Clean just a filename
Dim filename As String = "salmnas dlajhdla kjha;dmas'lkasn"
For Each c In IO.Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars
    filename = filename.Replace(c, "")
Next

'See also IO.Path.GetInvalidPathChars

To strip invalid characters:

static readonly char[] invalidFileNameChars = Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars();

// Builds a string out of valid chars
var validFilename = new string(filename.Where(ch => !invalidFileNameChars.Contains(ch)).ToArray());

To replace invalid characters:

static readonly char[] invalidFileNameChars = Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars();

// Builds a string out of valid chars and an _ for invalid ones
var validFilename = new string(filename.Select(ch => invalidFileNameChars.Contains(ch) ? '_' : ch).ToArray());

To replace invalid characters (and avoid potential name conflict like Hell* vs Hell$):

static readonly IList<char> invalidFileNameChars = Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars();

// Builds a string out of valid chars and replaces invalid chars with a unique letter (Moves the Char into the letter range of unicode, starting at "A")
var validFilename = new string(filename.Select(ch => invalidFileNameChars.Contains(ch) ? Convert.ToChar(invalidFileNameChars.IndexOf(ch) + 65) : ch).ToArray());

This question has been asked many times before and, as pointed out many times before, IO.Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars is not adequate.

First, there are many names like PRN and CON that are reserved and not allowed for filenames. There are other names not allowed only at the root folder. Names that end in a period are also not allowed.

Second, there are a variety of length limitations. Read the full list for NTFS here.

Third, you can attach to filesystems that have other limitations. For example, ISO 9660 filenames cannot start with "-" but can contain it.

Fourth, what do you do if two processes "arbitrarily" pick the same name?

In general, using externally-generated names for file names is a bad idea. I suggest generating your own private file names and storing human-readable names internally.

I agree with Grauenwolf and would highly recommend the Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars()

Here's my C# contribution:

string file = @"38?/.\}[+=n a882 a.a*/|n^%$ ad#(-))";
Array.ForEach(Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars(), 
      c => file = file.Replace(c.ToString(), String.Empty));

p.s. -- this is more cryptic than it should be -- I was trying to be concise.

Is there a way of making strings file-path safe in c#?

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