/* str_strip
 * Use the tolower function to fold an entire string to lower case
 * and remove characters not in a-z.
 */
char    *str_strip(
char *  string)
{
   register char *      rtn_string = NULL;
   register int         local_char;
   register int         i;
   register int         j;
   char *allowed_char = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789,._";

   if( (rtn_string = (char *)malloc( (strlen(string) +1) * sizeof(char) )) ) {
     j = 0;
     for( i = 0; i < strlen(string); i++) {
/*        rtn_string[i] = tolower( string[i]); */
	printf("goint into lower successful\n");
  	local_char = tolower( string[i]); 
	printf("to lower successful\n");
	if( strstr(allowed_char, (char *) local_char) )
	rtn_string[j++] = local_char ;  
	printf("strstr successful\n");
	}
     rtn_string[i] = '\0';
   }
   else
      ERROR_MSG("str_strip: Out of memory.");
   return( rtn_string );
} /* str_strip */