Generate Public "ID Text" (like Stackoverflow)

Question

Hello, I'm trying to create a simple method to turn a name (first name, last name, middle initial) into a public URL-friendly ID (like Stackoverflow does with question titles). Now people could enter all kinds of crazy characters, umlauts etc., is there something in .NET I can use to normalize it to URL-acceptable/english characters or do I need to write my own method to get this done?

Thank you!

Edit: An example (e.g. via RegEx or other way) would be super helpful!!! :)

Answer 1

A regular expression to validate the string with the characters and lengths you wish to allow.

Answer 2

Think you'll have to write your own method...

Safelist of characters...

A to Z

For Each c As char In SafeList If safe ... etc. Next

Answer 3

Sounds like what you're after is a Slug Generator!

Answer 4

Simple method using UrlEncode

You obviously have to do something to deal with the collisions (prevent them on user creation being sensible but that means you are tied to this structure)

s => Regex.Replace(HttpUtility.UrlEncode(s), "%..", "")

This is relying on the output of UrlEncode always using two characters for the encoded form and that you are happy to have space convert to '+'