Strip spaces and punctuation out of string

[kayek]

What is a good way to strip out punctuation and spaces from a string? For Example...

name1 = "John J. Van North"
name2 = "John J VanNorth"

I want to be able to strip out the spaces and any punctuation so that I can tell that both these names are the same. I am trying to eliminate dups.

Kaye

 

[Chalco]

Function strip_non_chars(input_string) As String
'Remove none alphabetic characters from the machinename
Dim arrCode() As String
Dim X As Integer
Dim n As Integer
Dim lChar As String
Dim iChar As Integer
Dim lWord As String

arrCode = Split(input_string, " &quot

For X = LBound(arrCode) To UBound(arrCode)
lWord = CStr(arrCode(X))
For n = 1 To Len(lWord)
lChar = Mid(lWord, n, 1)
iChar = Asc(lChar)
If iChar >= 65 And iChar <= 90 Then
'UPPER CASE Letter
strip_non_chars = strip_non_chars & Chr(iChar)
ElseIf iChar >= 97 And iChar <= 122 Then
'lower case Letter
strip_non_chars = strip_non_chars & Chr(iChar)
Else
'NOT a letter
strip_non_chars = strip_non_chars ' ie do nothing
End If
Next n
strip_non_chars = strip_non_chars & &quot; &quot;
Next X
strip_non_chars = Trim(strip_non_chars)

End Function

 

[kayek]

I found another way to do it from Microsoft's knowlegebase.

' --------------------------------------------------
' Function StripString()
'
' Returns a string minus a set of specified chars.
' --------------------------------------------------
Function StripString(MyStr As Variant) As Variant
On Error GoTo StripStringError

Dim strChar As String, strHoldString As String
Dim i As Integer

' Exit if the passed value is null.
If IsNull(MyStr) Then Exit Function

' Exit if the passed value is not a string.
If VarType(MyStr) <> 8 Then Exit Function

' Check each value for invalid characters.
For i = 1 To Len(MyStr)
strChar = Mid$(MyStr, i, 1)
Select Case strChar
Case &quot;.&quot;, &quot;#&quot;, &quot;,&quot;, &quot;-&quot;, &quot; &quot;
' Do nothing
Case Else
strHoldString = strHoldString & strChar
End Select
Next i

' Pass back corrected string.
StripString = strHoldString

StripStringEnd:
Exit Function

StripStringError:
MsgBox Error$
Resume StripStringEnd

End Function

 

[younguser]

use replace is very easy:
replace(&quot;John J. Van North&quot;, &quot; &quot;, &quot;&quot
replace(&quot;John J. Van North&quot;, &quot;.&quot;, &quot;&quot