In C# how can I prepare a string to be valid for windows directory name

Question

I am writing a C# program which reads certain tags from files and based on tag values it creates a directory structure.

Now there could be anything in those tags,

If the tag name is not suitable for a directory name I have to prepare it to make it suitable by replacing those characters with anything suitable. So that directory creation does not fail. I was using following code but I realised this is not enough..

path = path.replace("/","-");
path = path.replace("\\","-");

please advise what's the best way to do it..

thanks,

Answer 1

Import System.IO namespace and for path use

Path.GetInvalidPathChars

and for filename use

Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars

For Eg

string filename = "salmnas dlajhdla kjha;dmas'lkasn";

foreach (char c in Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars())
    filename = filename.Replace(System.Char.ToString(c), "");

foreach (char c in Path.GetInvalidPathChars())
    filename = filename.Replace(System.Char.ToString(c), "");

Then u can use Path.Combine to add tags to create a path

string mypath = Path.Combine(@"C:\", "First_Tag", "Second_Tag"); 

//return C:\First_Tag\Second_Tag

Answer 2

You can use the full list of invalid characters here to handle the replacement as desired. These are available directly via the Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars and Path.GetInvalidPathChars methods.