Clean the string? is there any better way of doing it?

If it's purely speed and efficiency you are after, I would recommend doing something like this:

public static string CleanString(string dirtyString)
{
    HashSet<char> removeChars = new HashSet<char>(" ?&^$#@!()+-,:;<>’\'-_*");
    StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder(dirtyString.Length);
    foreach (char c in dirtyString)
        if (!removeChars.Contains(c)) // prevent dirty chars
            result.Append(c);
    return result.ToString();
}

RegEx is certainly an elegant solution, but it adds extra overhead. By specifying the starting length of the string builder, it will only need to allocate the memory once (and a second time for the ToString at the end). This will cut down on memory usage and increase the speed, especially on longer strings.

However, as L.B. said, if you are using this to properly encode text that is bound for HTML output, you should be using HttpUtility.HtmlEncode instead of doing it yourself.

OK, consider the following test:

public class CleanString
{
    //by MSDN http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/844skk0h(v=vs.71).aspx
    public static string UseRegex(string strIn)
    {
        // Replace invalid characters with empty strings.
        return Regex.Replace(strIn, @"[^\w\.@-]", "");
    }

    // by Paolo Tedesco
    public static String UseStringBuilder(string strIn)
    {
        const string removeChars = " ?&^$#@!()+-,:;<>’\'-_*";
        // specify capacity of StringBuilder to avoid resizing
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(strIn.Length);
        foreach (char x in strIn.Where(c => !removeChars.Contains(c)))
        {
            sb.Append(x);
        }
        return sb.ToString();
    }

    // by Paolo Tedesco, but using a HashSet
    public static String UseStringBuilderWithHashSet(string strIn)
    {
        var hashSet = new HashSet<char>(" ?&^$#@!()+-,:;<>’\'-_*");
        // specify capacity of StringBuilder to avoid resizing
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(strIn.Length);
        foreach (char x in strIn.Where(c => !hashSet.Contains(c)))
        {
            sb.Append(x);
        }
        return sb.ToString();
    }

    // by SteveDog
    public static string UseStringBuilderWithHashSet2(string dirtyString)
    {
        HashSet<char> removeChars = new HashSet<char>(" ?&^$#@!()+-,:;<>’\'-_*");
        StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder(dirtyString.Length);
        foreach (char c in dirtyString)
            if (removeChars.Contains(c))
                result.Append(c);
        return result.ToString();
    }

    // original by patel.milanb
    public static string UseReplace(string dirtyString)
    {
        string removeChars = " ?&^$#@!()+-,:;<>’\'-_*";
        string result = dirtyString;

        foreach (char c in removeChars)
        {
            result = result.Replace(c.ToString(), string.Empty);
        }

        return result;
    }

    // by L.B
    public static string UseWhere(string dirtyString)
    {
        return new String(dirtyString.Where(Char.IsLetterOrDigit).ToArray());
    }
}

static class Program
{
    /// <summary>
    /// The main entry point for the application.
    /// </summary>
    [STAThread]
    static void Main()
    {
        var dirtyString = "sdfdf.dsf8908()=(=(sadfJJLef@ssyd€sdöf////fj()=/§(§&/(\"&sdfdf.dsf8908()=(=(sadfJJLef@ssyd€sdöf////fj()=/§(§&/(\"&sdfdf.dsf8908()=(=(sadfJJLef@ssyd€sdöf";
        var sw = new Stopwatch();

        var iterations = 50000;

        sw.Start();
        for (var i = 0; i < iterations; i++)
            CleanString.<SomeMethod>(dirtyString);
        sw.Stop();
        Debug.WriteLine("CleanString.<SomeMethod>: " + sw.ElapsedMilliseconds.ToString());
        sw.Reset();

        ....
        <repeat>
        ....       
    }
}

---

Output

CleanString.UseReplace: 791
CleanString.UseStringBuilder: 2805
CleanString.UseStringBuilderWithHashSet: 521
CleanString.UseStringBuilderWithHashSet2: 331
CleanString.UseRegex: 1700
CleanString.UseWhere: 233

---

Conclusion

Does probably not matter which method you use.

The difference in time between the fasted (UseWhere: 233ms) and the slowest (UseStringBuilder: 2805ms) method is 2572ms when called 50000(!) times in a row. You should probably not need to care about it if don't run the method that often.

But if you do, use the UseWhere method (written by L.B); but also note that it is slightly different.

use regex [?&^$#@!()+-,:;<>’\'-_*] for replacing with empty string