Standardize a String for Filename, remove accents and special chars

Question

I'm trying to find a way to normalize a string to pass it as a filename.

I have this so far:

my_string.mb_chars.normalize(:kd).gsub(/[^\x00-\x7F]/n, '').downcase.gsub(/[^a-z]/, '_')

But first problem: the - character. I guess there is more problems with this method.

I don't control the name, the name string can have accents, white spaces and special chars. I want to remove all of them, replace the accents with the corresponding letter ('é' => 'e') and replace the rest with the '_' character.

The names are like:

"Prélèvements - Routine"
"Carnet de santé"
...

I want them to be like a filename with no space/special chars:

"prelevements_routine"
"carnet_de_sante"
...

Thanks for the help :)

Possible duplicate of [How to make a Ruby string safe for a filesystem?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1939333/how-to-make-a-ruby-string-safe-for-a-filesystem) — Jon Schneider, Dec 05 '18 at 18:25

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 08 '15 at 19:54

11

Take a look at ActiveSupport::Inflector.transliterate, it's very useful handling this kind of chars problems. Read there: ActiveSupport::Inflector

Then, you could do something like:

ActiveSupport::Inflector.transliterate my_string.downcase.gsub(/\s/,"_")

edited Apr 08 '15 at 19:54

AdrieanKhisbe

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answered Nov 21 '12 at 23:47

Dario Barrionuevo

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2

Does not work with names like "xxx l'amour". Fix: is to add gsub(/'/, '') – Alain Dec 19 '13 at 13:59
This also does not work with strings that contain other punctuation like comma , – vanboom Sep 13 '18 at 15:24

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 10 '22 at 20:04

Use `ActiveStorage::Filename#sanitized`, if spaces are okay.

If spaces are okay, which I would suggest keeping, if this is a User-provided and/or User-downloadable file, then you can make use of the ActiveStorage::Filename#sanitized method that is meant for exactly this situation.

It removes special characters that are not allowed in a file name, whilst keeping all of the nice characters that Users typically use to nicely organize and describe their files, like spaces and ampersands (&).

ActiveStorage::Filename.new( "Prélèvements - Routine" ).sanitized 
#=> "Prélèvements - Routine"

ActiveStorage::Filename.new( "Carnet de santé" ).sanitized 
#=> "Carnet de santé"

ActiveStorage::Filename.new( "Foo:Bar / Baz.jpg" ).sanitized 
#=> "Foo-Bar - Baz.jpg"

Use `String#parameterize`, if you want to remove nearly everything.

And if you're really looking to remove everything, try String#parameterize:

"Prélèvements - Routine".parameterize
#=> "prelevements-routine"

"Carnet de santé".parameterize
#=> "carnet-de-sante"

"Foo:Bar / Baz.jpg".parameterize
#=> "foo-bar-baz-jpg"

Standardize a String for Filename, remove accents and special chars

2 Answers2

Use ActiveStorage::Filename#sanitized, if spaces are okay.

Use String#parameterize, if you want to remove nearly everything.

Use `ActiveStorage::Filename#sanitized`, if spaces are okay.

Use `String#parameterize`, if you want to remove nearly everything.