Warning: Removing invalid characters from name

[naughty]

is there a maya command or script that will purge a given string, removing any invalid characters (i.e. ones that aren't valid in an object name), just like Maya does internally when renaming objects using invalid character strings but, and here's the big BUT, WITHOUT returning a warning somewhere along the line?

I want to be able to do something like this:

stripInvalid("copy of LightGlow (blue).tga");

// Result: copy_of_LightGlow__blue__tga //

so, before I start writing "stripInvalid.mel", does anybody know if such a feature already exists?

remember, it's the absence of warnings that I'm most interested in so something like:

createNode unknown -n "node";
string $fixed = "copy of LightGlow (blue).tga";
$fixed = rename node $fixed;

is no good.

:nathaN

[gmask]

substituteAllString

[naughty]

heh heh, I knew it'd be there somewhere... thanks.

[EDIT]

actually, I just checked substituteAllString out and it's practically useless for what I want to achieve... never mind, I'm going home now so I'll whip up a proc there to do it... It'll only be about 5-6 lines anyway...

[gmask]

How is it useless?

substituteAllString("my node is bad", " ", "_")

returns my_node_is_bad

You could have a little loop that steps through various characters that may need substitution but I guess you also need to prevent any names from startign with numbers as I think that is also not allowed.

[naughty]

how is it useless...? your example demonstrates exactly how it is useless as it only allows replacement of a single character with NO regular expression support....
Any given string can contain any one of 200+ different valid ASCII characters and you reckon on using substituteAllString with a loop...?

here is the proc to do it if anyone's interested:

global proc string removeInvalid(string $input, int $mode)
{
string $output = "";
for ($n = 1 ; $n < size($input)+1 ; $n++)
{
string $char = `substring $input $n $n`;
if ($n == 1 && `match "[0-9]" $char` != "")
$output += ("_"+$char);
else if (`match "[a-zA-Z0-9\_]" $char` != "")
$output += $char;
else if ($mode)
$output += "_";
}
return $output;
}

__

The proc has two different modes, replacing invalid chars or removing them altogether.
It will also place a _ at the start if the first char is a number.

usage examples:
removeInvalid "naughty@genepool.com" 0;
// Result: naughtygenepoolcom //

removeInvalid "naughty@genepool.com" 1;
// Result: naughty_genepool_com //

removeInvalid "0112~X_alpha grill#2 copy.tga" 1;
// Result: _0112_X_alpha_grill_2_copy_tga //

:nathaN

[gmask]

It's just a tad insulting to call my efforts useless when I was trying to help... next time I won't reply.

[naughty]

hey hey what's all this then? there's no need to go into a strop about it. I never said your efforts were useless, I just said the command "substituteAllString" was useless in this instance. you then asked why and I told you.

I'm very glad you did mention "substituteAllString" because that was where I started looking for the commands I needed to write the removeInvalid proc.

I'm sorry if you thought I was insulting you but that wasn't the intention.

[gmask]

Okay.. thanks