Create (sane/safe) filename from any (unsafe) string

Question

I want to create a sane/safe filename (i.e. somewhat readable, no \"strange\" characters, etc.) from some random Unicode string (mich might contain just anything).

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Answer 1

More or less what has been mentioned here with regexp, but in reverse (replace any NOT listed):

>>> import re
>>> filename = u"ad\nbla'{-+\)(ç1?"
>>> re.sub(r'[^\w\d-]','_',filename)
u'ad_bla__-_____1_'