[RESOLVED] Convert VBA to VB.NET

I regularly use some VBA code within an Excel file to convert a chemical CAS number to a SMILES string. I didn't write it and all credit goes to the ChemCell team for coming up with it. My issue is that I would like to do same thing within a .NET app using VB.

Can anyone advise on how to modify the following code so that it gives me the same functionality without using Excel.

Code:

---

Private Function strip(ByVal str As String) As String
  Dim last
 
  For i = 1 To Len(str) Step 1
    If Asc(Mid(str, i, 1)) < 33 Then
      last = i
    End If
  Next i
 
  If last > 0 Then
    strip = Mid(str, 1, last - 1)
  Else
    strip = str
  End If
End Function

Public Function getSMILES(ByVal name As String) As String
  Dim XMLhttp: Set XMLhttp = CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP")
  XMLhttp.setTimeouts 2000, 2000, 2000, 2000
  XMLhttp.Open "GET", "http://cactus.nci.nih.gov/chemical/structure/" + name + "/smiles", False
  XMLhttp.send

  If XMLhttp.Status = 200 Then
    getSMILES = strip(XMLhttp.responsetext)
  Else
    getSMILES = ""
  End If
End Function
Public Function getInChIKey(ByVal name As String) As String
  Dim XMLhttp: Set XMLhttp = CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP")
  XMLhttp.setTimeouts 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000
  XMLhttp.Open "GET", "http://cactus.nci.nih.gov/chemical/structure/" + name + "/stdinchikey", False
  XMLhttp.send

  If XMLhttp.Status = 200 Then
    getInChIKey = Mid(strip(XMLhttp.responsetext), 10)
  Else
    getInChIKey = ""
  End If
End Function

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To explain how this works, I enter =getSmiles(cellreference) into a cell and it returns the SMILES string generated from the cactus site.

I would like to achieve the same thing by simply entering text into a textbox.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on the topic.

Steve

Alternatives for XMLhttp in VB.NET are WebRequest class and WebClient class.

As for the string functions, here's the link VB.NET String Functions