CODEWITHSUNDEEP
vb.netfilecharacter
ambrish dhaka
ambrish dhaka

Reputation: 749

Removing invalid characters in file names

I have the following code to remove the invalid characters in filename.

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions


Public Class Form1
    Dim fp As String

    Private Sub b1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles b1.Click
        If (FolderBrowserDialog1.ShowDialog() = DialogResult.OK) Then
            fp = FolderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath
            t2.Text = fp
        End If
    End Sub

    Private Sub b2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles b2.Click

    Dim files() As FileInfo = New DirectoryInfo(fp).GetFiles("*.*", IO.SearchOption.AllDirectories)
    For Each file As FileInfo In files
        Dim oldName = file.Name
        Dim ons As String = oldName
        t1.AppendText(ons + vbNewLine)
        Dim newName = Regex.Replace(oldName, "[^0-9a-zA-Z.]", "-")
        If oldName <> newName Then
            Dim newPath = Path.Combine(file.Directory.FullName, newName)
            file.MoveTo(newPath)
        End If
    Next

End Sub

End Class

This seems to have problem with FileInfo, which cannot be converted to string at the same time the Regex.Replace is also giving up some overload issue.
Both, these are beyond my comprehension.

The error in more detail.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 866

Answers (1)

Tim Schmelter
Tim Schmelter

Reputation: 460098

filename is not the name of the file but a FileInfo instance that has a Name property which you should use instead.

But apart from that Regex.Replace returns the string but you are not doing anything with it. So what you want to do here, rename the file? 

For Each file As FileInfo In files
    Dim oldName = file.Name
    Dim newName = Regex.Replace(oldName, "[^\w ]", "-")
    If oldName <> newName Then
       Dim newPath = Path.Combine(file.Directory.FullName, newName)
       file.MoveTo(newPath)
    End If
Next

Upvotes: 5

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