Look into Regular Expressions. Makes parsing relatively easy. Here is a
quick example that allows only alphanumeric characters and period (code
needs refinement, but I think it gives you an idea)

Sub ValidateInput()
Dim RegExp As Object
Dim inputstr, re
Set RegExp = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
Set re = RegExp
re.IgnoreCase = True
re.Global = True
re.Pattern = "[^a-z0-9\.]" 'Matching pattern are characters that are NOT
(indicated by the ^ sign) within a-z, 0-9 or the period character.

inputstr = InputBox("Input your string")

Do While re.test(inputstr) = True
inputstr = InputBox("Please correct your input")
Loop

MsgBox "Correct/corrected input: " & inputstr
End Sub

Cheers,

Joerg


"Satish" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi All

Is there any easy way I can validate the string entered by the user in
an input box?

I basically don't want the user to enter characters that are considered
invalid for file/folder names. i.e., \ / : * ? " < |

Will I have to parse the string and check each character one by one or
is there any easy way to do it?

Ideas appreciated.

Thanks
Satish