invalid characters in 'ID' web control property

[Gabe Moothart]

Hi,
In my asp.net app, I create several controls dynamically, and set their
'ID' property to a value stored in a database, so I can reference them
later. So far so good.

This database field, however, might contain characters which are illegal
in the 'ID' property. It took me quite a while to figure out that the
reason one of my controls was not working (but the others were) was
because there was a ':' in the ID property. Apparently, instead of
raising an exception (which I would have preferred), asp.net silently
converted the ':' to '_' - changing the name of my component.

After some experimentation, I noticed that, in the property editor, an
exception is raised when I try to create an ID field with any of the
characters '-', ':', and '?' (I'm sure there are others, too). However,
when setting the ID property at runtime, '-' and '?' are passed through
unchanged, and seem to work; while ':' is converted to '_'.

Is there a list somewhere of characters I need to avoid in the 'ID'
attribute? Or, better yet, a function which strips them out of a string?

TIA,
Gabe

[Bill Borg]

Gabe, I don't know if there is a list of characters or a function to strip them, but I'd be very nervous about using *data* to create any sort of ID field. I understand wanting to access them later, but can't you use a column name or something you "trust"? Otherwise, even if there is a strip function you trust, you'll run the risk of two different data fields "stripping" to the same ID. Just my $.02.

----- Gabe Moothart wrote: -----

Hi,
In my asp.net app, I create several controls dynamically, and set their
'ID' property to a value stored in a database, so I can reference them
later. So far so good.

This database field, however, might contain characters which are illegal
in the 'ID' property. It took me quite a while to figure out that the
reason one of my controls was not working (but the others were) was
because there was a ':' in the ID property. Apparently, instead of
raising an exception (which I would have preferred), asp.net silently
converted the ':' to '_' - changing the name of my component.

After some experimentation, I noticed that, in the property editor, an
exception is raised when I try to create an ID field with any of the
characters '-', ':', and '?' (I'm sure there are others, too). However,
when setting the ID property at runtime, '-' and '?' are passed through
unchanged, and seem to work; while ':' is converted to '_'.

Is there a list somewhere of characters I need to avoid in the 'ID'
attribute? Or, better yet, a function which strips them out of a string?

TIA,
Gabe