>I don't recall of a function in VFP to check for the validity of filenames.
>But maybe I overlooked it.
>Anybody now how to check the validity of a given filename.
>This comes in handy especially when users are specifying the name for export files.
>For example when they had a filename containing a "*".

There's a function in FOXTOOLS to do this, but it only works with 8.3 form names.

One quick way to check is to try to create the file using low-level I/O.

Function LegalName
LPARAMETER cNameToCheck
IF FILE(FULLPATH(cNameToCheck))
  *  it already exists, so its legal
  RETURN .t.
ELSE
  LOCAL nFH
  nFH=FCREATE(FULLPATH(cNameToCheck))
  IF nFH = -1
     *  Invalid, or can't create in any case
     RETURN .F.
  ELSE
     =FCLOSE(nFH)
     ERASE (FULLPATH(cNameToCheck)
     RETURN .T.
  ENDIF
ENDIF

>Maybe a Win32 API call ?