Region name restrictions in AppFabric Cache

Question

We use Windows Server AppFabric Cache 6.1 x64. Having an instance of Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.DataCache and trying to get an object by key/region causes DataCacheException if the region name contains characters like '!' or '.':

 ErrorCode<ERRCA0018>:SubStatus<ES0001>:The request timed out.

'-', '_' are fine. However, any character is fine for item key but not for region name. MSDN is silent about any restrictions. Why? How do you escape it?

Answer 1

Ended up with this one:

    static Regex regex = new Regex(@"[^a-zA-Z_\-\d]", RegexOptions.Compiled);

    /// <summary>
    /// Fixes invalid characters in region names that cause 
    /// DataCacheException ErrorCode<ERRCA0018>:SubStatus<ES0001>:The request timed out.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="name">Region name to process.</param>
    /// <returns>Escaped name where all invalid characters are replaced with their hex code.</returns>
    protected internal static string Escape(string name)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(name))
            return name;

        string result = regex.Replace(name, m => ((int)m.Value.First()).ToString("X") );
        return result;
    }