Re: Acceptable characters in IFS file names

On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 1:48 PM, Dan <dan27649@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Before I generate the file name, I want to ensure the name is valid in
terms of actually being able to create the file and also to being able to
open it in Excel.

Well, when trying to rename a file in the Windows GUI, it tells you
that the following characters are forbidden: \ / : * ? " < > |

That closely matches your list of already tried and rejected (perhaps
you tried them precisely because they are displayed in the Windows
rename input error tooltip).

So I would think that those are the *only* characters that are
strictly forbidden in the Windows file system. I know modern versions
of Windows allow accented characters.

Here's a reference. It says you should also avoid the null character,
and preferably also control codes, though they could conceivably be
legal:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365247(v=vs.85).aspx

John Y.