VB.NET Language in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Name

Replace Function

Class

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Strings

Syntax

Replace(expression, find, replace [, _
        start[, count[, compare]]])

expression (required; String)

The complete string containing the substring to be replaced

find (required; String)

The substring to be found by the function

replace (required; String)

The new substring to replace find in expression

start (optional; Long)

The character position in expression at which the search for find begins

count (optional; Long)

The number of instances of find to replace

compare (optional; CompareMethod constant)

The method used to compare find with expression; its value can be CompareMethod.Binary (for case-sensitive comparison) or CompareMethod.Text (for case-insensitive comparison)

Return Value

The return value from Replace depends on the parameters you specify in the argument list, as the following table shows:

If	Return value
expression = “”	Zero-length string (“”)
find = “”	Copy of expression
replace = “”	Copy of expression with all instances of find removed
start > Len(expression)	Zero-length string (“”)
count = 0	Copy of expression

Description

Replaces a given number of instances of a specified substring in another string

Rules at a Glance

• If start is omitted, the search begins at the start of the string.

• If count is omitted, all instances of the substring after start are replaced.

• CompareMethod.BinaryCompare is case sensitive; that is, Replace matches both character and case, whereas CompareMethod.Text is case ...