Validating text box characters

Question

So far my validation of user input is checking for nulls, spaces within strings, max/min values or integers (where applicable). Now, I need to check for specific characters within the string on certain text boxes. For example, I don't want the user to input
special characters like !,@,#,$,%,^,& etc...
Would this have to be accomplished using regex utilizes like for validating email format?  Or is there a built in function for checking for special characters?
James

Answer 1

For this project I really only have four format types of user input.  Integers (with min/max values), IP address, Email Address and Strings that contain no special characters.  It seems that I could tag my controls as either "IP Address",
"Text", "Email Address" or "Integer" and then loop through all the controls in the project and check for formatting using something similar to what was posted in another thread.  Thoughts?
James
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
'Set combo boxes to index 0
For Each cmb As ComboBox In GetControlsOfType(Of ComboBox)(Me, True)
cmb.SelectedIndex = 0
Next
End Sub
Function GetControlsOfType(Of ctrlType As Control)(parent As Control, searchContainers As Boolean) As IEnumerable(Of ctrlType)
Dim ctrls As New List(Of ctrlType)
For Each ctrl As Control In parent.Controls
If TypeOf ctrl Is ctrlType Then ctrls.Add(DirectCast(ctrl, ctrlType))
If searchContainers AndAlso ctrl.Controls.Count > 0 Then ctrls.AddRange(GetControlsOfType(Of ctrlType)(ctrl, searchContainers))
Next
Return ctrls
End Function