Here is are the functions that do more general purpose things.

seasonMover/utils.py

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+from datetime import datetime
+import hashlib
+import os
+import re
+import struct
+
+def sanitize(string, ignore_characters=None):
+    """Sanitize a string to strip special characters.
+
+    :param str string: the string to sanitize.
+    :param set ignore_characters: characters to ignore.
+    :return: the sanitized string.
+    :rtype: str
+
+    """
+    # only deal with strings
+    if string is None:
+        return
+
+    ignore_characters = ignore_characters or set()
+
+    # replace some characters with one space
+    characters = {'-', ':', '(', ')', '.'} - ignore_characters
+    if characters:
+        string = re.sub(r'[%s]' % re.escape(''.join(characters)), ' ', string)
+
+    # remove some characters
+    characters = {'\''} - ignore_characters
+    if characters:
+        string = re.sub(r'[%s]' % re.escape(''.join(characters)), '', string)
+
+    # replace multiple spaces with one
+    string = re.sub(r'\s+', ' ', string)
+
+    # strip and lower case
+    return string.strip().lower()
+