Binaryworld - ValidateVBName - Check a variable's or procedure's name ... [ VB.net -> AddIn ]

' Return True if a string is a valid name for a Visual Basic variable or
' procedure.
' This function turns to be useful when writing add-ins that generate code.
' The optional argument specifies whether the dot character is accepted.

Function ValidateVBName(ByVal VBName As String, Optional ByVal acceptDots As _
  Boolean = False) As Boolean
  Dim i As Long

  ' reject null strings or strings that are too long
  If VBName Is Nothing OrElse VBName.Length = 0 OrElse VBName.Length > 255 _
    Then
    Exit Function
  ElseIf VBName.IndexOf("..") >= 0 Then
    ' two consecutive dots aren't valid
    Exit Function
  End If

  ' create the regular expression
  ' note that ^ is the beginning of string, $ is end of string
  Dim pattern As String = "^[A-Z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*$"
  If acceptDots Then
    pattern = "^[A-Z_][A-Za-z0-9_.]*$"
  End If
  Dim re As New Text.RegularExpressions.Regex(pattern, _
    Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)

  ' return True if it is a perfect match
  Return re.IsMatch(VBName)

End Function