Any standard way of making sure a file name is valid

Question

Hi everyone,
I would like to say thanks to all who participate in this forum because it is one of the most important part of the java community.
I am having some problems with a desktop application that am workin on at this time. Having a small window that allows the user of the application to use a JFileChooser to choose a directory (Directory only option enabled) where they want to store there file and also a JTextField that allows the user to enter the file name they wish the file to be called, I am having problem when the user enters a file name with characters that are not allowed in a file.
I was wondering if there is a standard way of validating file names across several platform or does anybody have any tips and tricks for getting around this problem.
Thanks in advance
Franklini

Answer 1

matches() takes in a regular expression- the regular expression in the code snippet above will catch any combination of those characters (one correction though- it should be getName() rather than getAbsolutePath() because getAbsolutePath will always have a : and a \ in it).
try something like the below code, which will keep prompting until you cancel or put in a valid name:
   while(returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION &&
              file.getName().matches(".*[\\/:*?|<>\"].*") ){
     JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,
                                   "The filename " + file.getAbsolutePath() + " is invalid.",
                                   "Save As Error",
                                   JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
     returnVal = fileChooser.showSaveDialog(null);
     if (returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
       file = fileChooser.getSelectedFile();
   }