Hello All,

I found myself needing to be able to identify exactly which character in a string was not valid. IDL_VALIDNAME just returns a null string with no feedback as to where.

I hope the routine below is useful to everyone!

Ronn Kling
www.rlkling.com

pro test, newTagSet

if n_params() eq 0 then newTagSet = 'var-72'

newTagSet = krs_validname(newTagSet, badList)
if n_elements(badList) ne 0 then begin
void = dialog_message(/error, ['Tags must not have these characters.', badList.toarray(), 'Try again'])
endif
return & end

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function krs_validname, inputString, badList
;checks to see if all the characters in the inputString are valid and if they are not then identifies which ones are not
compile_opt idl2

badList = !NULL
if strlen(IDL_validname(inputString)) ne 0 then return, inputString
;something is wrong, so step through each character to find the bad ones
numChars = strlen(inputString)
badList = list()
for i=0, numChars-1 do begin
varName = strmid(inputString,i,1)
;first character cannot be a number, others can
if byte(varName) ge 48 and byte(varName) le 57 then begin
if i eq 0 then badList->add,'First Character Cannot Be A Number'
endif else if strlen(IDL_validname(strmid(inputString,i,1))) eq 0 then badList->add, varName
endfor

return, inputString
end