How can I validate star names and designations?
As far as I know, there is no standard that defines valid characters for a stellar designation. Sometimes people write using Greek letters (e.g. &quot;α Centauri&quot;) and there are many odd catalogue notations. I would not trust that star designations could not contain commas or pipes (aka vertical bar, |), although I think it would be rare.
The IAU has stated that star names are separate from the catalogue designations, and in regard to designations &quot;it is standard practice to identify them with an alphanumeric designation. &quot; But standard practice does not guarantee that somebody will not disregard it, and there are clearly plenty of designations already with non-alphanumeric symbols.
So, one should probably not assume too much about what characters are in the string. Presumably for safety and generality one needs to assume a Unicode string and some robust way of escaping entries.