How to remove unsafe characters to save file

Question

I would like to save a file with the name that has the most valid characters remaining intact, f.e. if I get supplied the filename:

>This\ Ăwesomé_Song?©.mp3

and I want to save it under Windows 7, it won't let me save it until I remove >, \ and ?. The characters Ă, © and é are totally fine and I would like to keep them intact (instead of f.e. just running everything through an ASCII filter).

I don't know which characters are allowed f.e. under Unix and the like but I would like it to work platform-independently. The way I would solve this problem is by implementing a list of strings that each contain a class of characters, ranked from most vicious (f.e. ?) to most harmless (f.e. the letter a) and knocking them out string by string until I get a filename that i can save.

Language is Python, thanks!

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/295135/turn-a-string-into-a-valid-filename-in-python is a very similar question. take a look — dting, Mar 26 '11 at 19:53

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 26 '11 at 20:02

8

>>> import re
>>> print re.sub(r'[\\/:"*?<>|]+', "", "This\ Ăwesomé_Song?©.mp3")
This Ăwesomé_Song©.mp3
>>>

answered Mar 26 '11 at 20:02

dting

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I was able to easily adapt this solution for Groovy (and handle few extra characters for my own needs): filename = filename.replaceAll(~/[\\/:"*?<>| #,]+/, '-') – kjl May 23 '12 at 22:28

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 26 '11 at 19:53

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In posix, only two octets are reserved, forward slash (/, 0x2F, dec 42), and null (\0, 0x00, dec 0). Any other character could appear in a filename.

answered Mar 26 '11 at 19:53

SingleNegationElimination

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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

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You may use this pattern from this question to list all valid characters:

>>> import string
>>> valid_chars = "-_.() %s%s" % (string.ascii_letters, string.digits)

And then just check your filename manually.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

Community

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answered Mar 26 '11 at 19:58

ikostia

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How to remove unsafe characters to save file

3 Answers3