How can I remove a colon between two numbers in VB.NET?

Question

I have a text in this format:

term: 156:59 datainput

I want to remove the ":" between the number and then replace it with something else so the text can become:

term: 156-59 datainput

How can I do this in VB.NET?

Answer 1

Assuming you have read the data in to a string, take a look at the string.replace function.

Answer 2

Yes, I know this is a little clumsy, but it should work (assuming your data is in exactly the format you specify):

input[input.IndexOf(":", input.IndexOf(":")+1)] = "#"

Of course, if you want a more general case to find NUMBER:NUMBER and replace it with NUMBER#NUMBER, I'd recommend using a regular expression, like this:

var re = new Regex(@"(\d+):(\d+)");
re.Replace(input, "$1#$2");

Answer 3

In VB.NET (credit Jonathan):

    Dim text As String = "term: 156:59 datainput"
    Dim fixedText As String = Regex.Replace(text, "(\d+):(\d+)", "$1-$2")

nb: removed last two lines as suggested.