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I'm writing a string replacing function to replace smiles with there actual image location but the code is going to be very big and messy because of all the nested ifs but i cant think of a more efficient way of writing the code.

Public Function exchangeSmilies(ByVal postString As String) As String Dim ChangedString = postString ChangedString.ToLower() If ChangedString.Contains(":)") Then ChangedString = ChangedString.Replace(":)", GetSmilieMapPath("smile.gif")) If ChangedString.Contains(":p") Then ChangedString = ChangedString.Replace(":p", GetSmilieMapPath("toungue.gif")) If ChangedString.Contains(";)") Then ChangedString = ChangedString.Replace(";)", GetSmilieMapPath("wink.gif")) If ChangedString.Contains("<3") Then ChangedString = ChangedString.Replace("<3", GetSmilieMapPath("heart.gif")) End If End If End If End If Return ChangedString End Function Public Function GetSmilieMapPath(ByVal SmilieImage As String) As String GetSmilieMapPath = "<img src=" & Chr(34) & "../Images/Smilies/" & SmilieImage & Chr(34) & ">" Return GetSmilieMapPath End Function
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    Your code as written doesn't do what you want. If a string contains <3 but not :, your code won't do any replacements. Start by un-nesting all these if's. Then if it still looks messy, try the dictionary approach other answers suggest. Commented Jun 2, 2011 at 14:25
  • You don't need to do String.Contains before calling String.Replace. Commented Jun 2, 2011 at 14:29
  • +1, I also need similar solution Commented Jun 2, 2011 at 20:43

3 Answers 3

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Use a Dictionary instead.

Create a dictionary like the following at the class level:

Dim dictionary As New Dictionary(Of String, String) dictionary.Add(":)", GetSmiliePath("smile.gif")) dictionary.Add(":p", GetSmiliePath("tongue.gif")) ...

In the exchangeSmilies function, you can loop through this dictionary to replace any occurrences:

... For Each pair In dictionary If ChangedString.Contains(pair.Key) Then ChangedString = ChangedString.Replace(pair.Key, pair.Value) End If Next Return ChangedString
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String.Contains can be omitted - if pair.Key isn't in there, String.Replace will return the original string.
3

Have a Dictionary(Of String, String) that contains each of your emoticons and replacement. Use a loop to do the actual replacement.

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I haven't done vb.net for a long time so I can't give you exact code. But the basic idea is this: Make a map where it contains keys of symbols (":)") and values of filename ("smile.gif"). Make that a static member variable. Then just iterate over the map and do your if (string contains map.key) then replace map.key in string with f(map.value).

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