Better way of replacing?

Hi,

I have a code snippet that cleans a string of various characters.

Code:

---

    Public Function cleanthis(ByRef stringer As String) As String

        Dim stringtest As String = stringer.Trim
        stringtest = stringtest.Replace("/", " ")
        stringtest = stringtest.Replace(":", " ")
        stringtest = stringtest.Replace(";", " ")
        stringtest = stringtest.Replace("'", "")
        stringtest = stringtest.Replace("(", "")
        stringtest = stringtest.Replace(")", "")
        stringtest = stringtest.Replace(" ", "-")
        stringtest = stringtest.Replace("---", "-")
        stringtest = stringtest.Replace("--", "-")
        stringtest = stringtest.Replace("&", "and")
        stringtest = stringtest.Replace(",", "")
        cleanthis= stringtest.Trim

    End Function

---

Is there a better way to do it than this?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Regards

Peter

Seems like this would be best to use string builder rather than keep assigning the string value on each replace.

Code:

---

        Dim DirtyString As String = "//This is a : test;it's (should) replace items --- & also, be fast"
        DirtyString.Cleaner()
        Console.WriteLine(DirtyString)

---

Code:

---

    <Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension()> _
    Public Sub Cleaner(ByRef sender As String)

        Dim SearchItems(,) As String = _
            { _
                {"/", " "}, _
                {":", " "}, _
                {"'", ""}, _
                {"---", "-"}, _
                {"&", "And"}, _
                {"(", ""}, _
                {")", ""} _
            }

        Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder(sender)
        Dim Rows As Integer = SearchItems.GetLength(0) - 1

        For Row As Integer = 0 To Rows
            sb.Replace(SearchItems(Row, 0), SearchItems(Row, 1))
        Next

        sender = sb.ToString

    End Sub

---

Why not use Regex??

--------------------
Sabrina Gage
Free Live Chat Software

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sabrina Gage

Why not use Regex??

--------------------
Sabrina Gage
Free Live Chat Software

---

To be honest I believe there is no gain in using regular expressions here.

Code:

---

        Dim DirtyString As String = "//This is a : test;it's (should) replace items --- & also, be fast"
        Dim dict As New Dictionary(Of String, String)
        dict.Add("/", "")
        dict.Add(":", "")
        dict.Add("&", "And")

        Console.WriteLine(DirtyString.DictReplace(dict))

---

Code:

---

    <System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension()> _
    Public Function DictReplace( _
        ByVal sender As String, _
            ByVal UserDictionary As Dictionary(Of String, String)) As String

        Return Regex.Replace(sender, "(" & _
                            String.Join("|", UserDictionary.Keys.ToArray()) & ")", _
                            Function(m As Match) UserDictionary(m.Value))

    End Function

---

Hopefully someone can poke holes at this method simply because there are issues with using a dictionary.