Creating Directory in VB.Net by ignoring special or non-supported characters in directory name

Question

Hi,

I am creating directory structure something similar to:
ManufacturerName\DeviceModel\DeviceSerialNumber

Dim BIOSInfo As New ManagementObjectSearcher("root\CIMV2", "SELECT * FROM Win32_BIOS") 'Manufacturer, Serial Number

Dim DeviceInfo As New ManagementObjectSearcher("root\CIMV2", "SELECT * FROM Win32_ComputerSystem") 'Model

Dim pcVendor As String = "" & queryBIOS("Manufacturer") & ""

Dim pcModel As String = "" & queryDevInfo("Model") & ""

Dim pcSerial As String = "" & queryBIOS("SerialNumber") & ""

Dim folderPath As String = "D:\DevInfo" & pcVendor & "" & pcModel & "" & pcSerial & ""

Problem: On some devices, the manufacture name is comprising of characters on other it's the device model which has invalid character ... which results in failure to create a directory.
Following screenshot shows the results on Fujitsu device, where Manufacturer name has // which is not valid for the creation of directory.

Similarly, on a Lenovo machine, I have following device model with : which is also not supported:

Answer 1

Hi

Although there may be other considerations, here is an example to remove invalid characters from a Directory name. There are many other entities that use some sort of Path/naming conventions, but for standard Directory names, this may be OK. If you would rather replace the invalid characters with your own choice, then just replace the 'String.Empty' with the character you want to use.

  Dim fixed1 As String = Fix("Fujitsu // American MegaTrends")
  Dim fixed2 As String = Fix("System x3650 M5: -[8871AC1]-")

  Function Fix(s As String) As String
    Dim NotAllowed As String = """\/:|<>*?."
    Dim cc As New List(Of Char)
    For i As Integer = 1 To 31
      NotAllowed &= Chr(i)
    Next
    For Each ch As Char In NotAllowed
      s = s.Replace(ch, String.Empty)
    Next
    Return Trim(s)
  End Function

Answer 2

..........

Answer 3

The reserved characters that cannot be used are documented at Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces. So parse your strings for these reserved characters and replace them with an acceptable substitute or remove them.