StringBuilder VB.NET Reference Documentation

StringBuilder

Current Version: 9.5.0.97

A simple class for building strings. (Represents a mutable string of characters.)

Note: This class was introduced in Chilkat v9.5.0.58.

Object Creation

Dim obj As New Chilkat.StringBuilder()

Properties

IntValue
IntValue As Integer
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Returns the content of the string converted to an integer.

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IsBase64
IsBase64 As Boolean (ReadOnly)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.76

Returns True if the content contains only those characters allowed in the base64 encoding. A base64 string is composed of characters 'A'..'Z', 'a'..'z', '0'..'9', '+', '/' and it is often padded at the end with up to two '=', to make the length a multiple of 4. Whitespace is ignored.

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LastMethodSuccess
LastMethodSuccess As Boolean

Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of True indicates success, a value of False indicates failure. This property is automatically set for method calls. It is not modified by property accesses. The property is automatically set to indicate success for the following types of method calls:

  • Any method that returns a string.
  • Any method returning a Chilkat object, binary bytes, or a date/time.
  • Any method returning a standard boolean status value where success = True and failure = False.
  • Any method returning an integer where failure is defined by a return value less than zero.

Note: Methods that do not fit the above requirements will always set this property equal to True. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.

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Length
Length As Integer (ReadOnly)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

The number of characters of the string contained within this instance.

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Methods

Append
Function Append(ByVal value As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Appends a copy of the specified string to this instance.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendBd
Function AppendBd(ByVal binData As BinData, ByVal charset As String, ByVal offset As Integer, ByVal numBytes As Integer) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.64

Appends the contents of binData. The charset specifies the character encoding of the bytes contained in binData. The charset can be any of the supported encodings listed at Chilkat Supported Character Encodings. To append the entire contents of binData, set offset and numBytes equal to zero. To append a range of binData, set the offset and numBytes to specify the range.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendEncoded
Function AppendEncoded(ByVal binaryData As Byte(), ByVal encoding As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Appends binary data using the encoding specified by encoding, such as "base64", "hex", etc.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendInt
Function AppendInt(ByVal value As Integer) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Appends the string representation of a specified 32-bit signed integer to this instance.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendInt64
Function AppendInt64(ByVal value As Int64) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Appends the string representation of a specified 64-bit signed integer to this instance.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendLine
Function AppendLine(ByVal value As String, ByVal crlf As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.65

Appends the value followed by a CRLF or LF to the end of the curent StringBuilder object. If crlf is True, then a CRLF line ending is used. Otherwise a LF line ending is used.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendRandom
Function AppendRandom(ByVal numBytes As Integer, ByVal encoding As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.96

Append numBytes random bytes encoded according to encoding. encoding can be "hex", "hex_lower", "base64", "base64url", or any other encoding supported by Chilkat.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendSb
Function AppendSb(ByVal sb As StringBuilder) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Appends the contents of another StringBuilder to this instance.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendUuid
Function AppendUuid(ByVal lowerCase As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.93

Generates and appends a random GUID/UUID such as 63c35f38-2b5f-4600-b3da-3ddee86d62b3. If lowerCase is True, then the hex values use lowercase ("a" - "f"). If lowerCase is False then uppercase is used ("A" - "F").

Returns True for success, False for failure.

More Information and Examples
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Clear
Sub Clear()
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Removes all characters from the current StringBuilder instance.

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Contains
Function Contains(ByVal str As String, ByVal caseSensitive As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Returns True if the str is contained within this object. For case sensitive matching, set caseSensitive equal to True. For case-insensitive, set caseSensitive equal to False.

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ContainsWord
Function ContainsWord(ByVal word As String, ByVal caseSensitive As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.69

Returns True if the word is contained within this object, but only if it is a whole word. This method is limited to finding whole words in strings that only contains characters in the Latin1 charset (i.e. iso-8859-1 or Windows-1252). A whole word can only contain alphanumeric chars where the alpha chars are restricted to those of the Latin1 alpha chars. (The underscore character is also considered part of a word.)

For case sensitive matching, set caseSensitive equal to True. For case-insensitive, set caseSensitive equal to False.

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ContentsEqual
Function ContentsEqual(ByVal str As String, ByVal caseSensitive As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns True if the contents of this object equals the str. Returns False if unequal. For case insensitive equality, set caseSensitive equal to False.

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ContentsEqualSb
Function ContentsEqualSb(ByVal sb As StringBuilder, ByVal caseSensitive As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns True if the contents of this object equals the sb. Returns False if unequal. For case insensitive equality, set caseSensitive equal to False.

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Decode
Function Decode(ByVal encoding As String, ByVal charset As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Decodes and replaces the contents with the decoded string. The encoding can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable" (or "qp"), "url", "base32", "Q", "B", "url_rc1738", "url_rfc2396", "url_rfc3986", "url_oauth", "uu", "modBase64", or "html" (for HTML entity encoding). The full up-to-date list of supported binary encodings is available at the link entitled "Supported Binary Encodings" below.

Note: This method can only be called if the encoded content decodes to a string. The charset indicates the charset to be used in intepreting the decoded bytes. For example, the charset can be "utf-8", "utf-16", "iso-8859-1", "shift_JIS", etc.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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DecodeAndAppend
Function DecodeAndAppend(ByVal value As String, ByVal encoding As String, ByVal charset As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.87

Decodes a binary encoded string, where the binary encoding (such as "url", "hex", "base64", etc.) is specified by encoding, and the underlying charset encoding (such as "utf-8", "windows-1252", etc.) is specified by charset. The decoded string is appended to this object.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

More Information and Examples
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Encode
Function Encode(ByVal encoding As String, ByVal charset As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Encodes to base64, hex, quoted-printable, URL encoding, etc. The encoding can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable" (or "qp"), "url", "base32", "Q", "B", "url_rc1738", "url_rfc2396", "url_rfc3986", "url_oauth", "uu", "modBase64", or "html" (for HTML entity encoding). The full up-to-date list of supported binary encodings is available at the link entitled "Supported Binary Encodings" below.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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EndsWith
Function EndsWith(ByVal substr As String, ByVal caseSensitive As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns True if the string ends with substr. Otherwise returns False. The comparison is case sensitive if caseSensitive is True, and case insensitive if caseSensitive is False.

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EntityDecode
Function EntityDecode() As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Decodes HTML entities. See HTML entities for more information about HTML entities.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

More Information and Examples
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GetAfterBetween
Function GetAfterBetween(ByVal searchAfter As String, ByVal beginMark As String, ByVal endMark As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Begin searching after the 1st occurrence of searchAfter is found, and then return the substring found between the next occurrence of beginMark and the next occurrence of endMark.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetAfterFinal
Function GetAfterFinal(ByVal marker As String, ByVal removeFlag As Boolean) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Returns the substring found after the final occurrence of marker. If removeFlag is True, the marker and the content that follows is removed from this content.

If the marker is not present, then the entire string is returned. In this case, if removeFlag is True, this object is also cleared.

Returns Nothing on failure

More Information and Examples
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GetAsString
Function GetAsString() As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Returns the contents as a string.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetBefore
Function GetBefore(ByVal marker As String, ByVal removeFlag As Boolean) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Returns the substring found before the 1st occurrence of marker. If removeFlag is True, the content up to and including the marker is removed from this object's contents.

If the marker is not present, then the entire string is returned. In this case, if removeFlag is True, this object is also cleared.

Returns Nothing on failure

More Information and Examples
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GetBetween
Function GetBetween(ByVal beginMark As String, ByVal endMark As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns the substring found between the 1st occurrence of beginMark and the next occurrence of endMark.

Returns Nothing on failure

More Information and Examples
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GetDecoded
Function GetDecoded(ByVal encoding As String) As Byte()
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Decodes and returns the decoded bytes. The encoding can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable" (or "qp"), "url", "base32", "Q", "B", "url_rc1738", "url_rfc2396", "url_rfc3986", "url_oauth", "uu", "modBase64", or "html" (for HTML entity encoding). The full up-to-date list of supported binary encodings is available at the link entitled "Supported Binary Encodings" below.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

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GetEncoded
Function GetEncoded(ByVal encoding As String, ByVal charset As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns the string contents encoded in an encoding such as base64, hex, quoted-printable, or URL-encoding. The encoding can be set to any of the following strings: "base64", "hex", "quoted-printable" (or "qp"), "url", "base32", "Q", "B", "url_rc1738", "url_rfc2396", "url_rfc3986", "url_oauth", "uu", "modBase64", or "html" (for HTML entity encoding). The full up-to-date list of supported binary encodings is available at the link entitled "Supported Binary Encodings" below.

Note: The Encode method modifies the content of this object. The GetEncoded method leaves this object's content unmodified.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetHash
Function GetHash(ByVal algorithm As String, ByVal encoding As String, ByVal charset As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.91

Returns the hash of the contents of this object. The algorithm is the hash algorithm, and can be "sha1", "sha256", "sha384", "sha512", "sha3-224", "sha3-256", "sha3-384", "sha3-512", "md2", "md5", "ripemd128", "ripemd160","ripemd256", or "ripemd320". The encoding can be "base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "base32", "base58", "qp" (for quoted-printable), "url" (for url-encoding), "hex", "hexLower", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

The charset is the character encoding byte representation to hash. It is typically "utf-8". It can be any of the chacter encodings listed at Chilkat Character Encodings List.

Returns Nothing on failure

More Information and Examples
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GetNth
Function GetNth(ByVal index As Integer, ByVal delimiterChar As String, ByVal exceptDoubleQuoted As Boolean, ByVal exceptEscaped As Boolean) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns the Nth substring in string that is a list delimted by delimiterChar. The first substring is at index 0. If exceptDoubleQuoted is True, then the delimiter char found between double quotes is not treated as a delimiter. If exceptEscaped is True, then an escaped (with a backslash) delimiter char is not treated as a delimiter.

Returns Nothing on failure

More Information and Examples
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GetRange
Function GetRange(ByVal startIndex As Integer, ByVal numChars As Integer, ByVal removeFlag As Boolean) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.87

Returns a string containing the specified range of characters from this instance. If removeFlag is True, then the range of chars is removed from this instance.

Note: It was discovered that the range of chars was always removed regardless of the value of removeFlag. This is fixed in v9.5.0.89.

Returns Nothing on failure

More Information and Examples
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LastNLines
Function LastNLines(ByVal numLines As Integer, ByVal bCrlf As Boolean) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns the last N lines of the text. If fewer than numLines lines exists, then all of the text is returned. If bCrlf is True, then the line endings of the returned string are converted to CRLF, otherwise the line endings are converted to LF-only.

Returns Nothing on failure

More Information and Examples
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LoadFile
Function LoadFile(ByVal path As String, ByVal charset As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Loads the contents of a file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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Obfuscate
Sub Obfuscate()
Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Obfuscates the string. (The Unobfuscate method can be called to reverse the obfuscation to restore the original string.)

The Chilkat string obfuscation algorithm works by taking the utf-8 bytes of the string, base64 encoding it, and then scrambling the letters of the base64 encoded string. It is deterministic in that the same string will always obfuscate to the same result. It is NOT a secure way of encrypting a string. It is only meant to be a simple means of transforming a string into something unintelligible.

More Information and Examples
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Prepend
Function Prepend(ByVal value As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.61

Prepends a copy of the specified string to this instance.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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PunyDecode
Function PunyDecode() As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.71

In-place decodes the string from punycode.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

More Information and Examples
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PunyEncode
Function PunyEncode() As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.71

In-place encodes the string to punycode.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

More Information and Examples
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RemoveAccents
Function RemoveAccents() As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.91

Removes the accents (diacritics) from European accented characters. This applies only to the accented characters found in the Windows-1252 (Latin alphabet) and Windows-1250 (Central European) charsets. Accent marks for characters in other languages will not be removed.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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RemoveAfterFinal
Function RemoveAfterFinal(ByVal marker As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Removes the substring found after the final occurrence of the marker. Also removes the marker. Returns True if the marker was found and content was removed. Otherwise returns False.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

More Information and Examples
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RemoveBefore
Function RemoveBefore(ByVal marker As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Removes the substring found before the 1st occurrence of the marker. Also removes the marker. Returns True if the marker was found and content was removed. Otherwise returns False.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

More Information and Examples
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RemoveCharsAt
Function RemoveCharsAt(ByVal startIndex As Integer, ByVal numChars As Integer) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.87

Removes the specified range of characters from this instance.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

More Information and Examples
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Replace
Function Replace(ByVal value As String, ByVal replacement As String) As Integer
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Replaces all occurrences of a specified string in this instance with another specified string. Returns the number of replacements.

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ReplaceAfterFinal
Function ReplaceAfterFinal(ByVal marker As String, ByVal replacement As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.73

Replaces the content found after the final occurrence of marker with replacement.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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ReplaceAllBetween
Function ReplaceAllBetween(ByVal beginMark As String, ByVal endMark As String, ByVal replacement As String, ByVal replaceMarks As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.64

Replaces the first occurrence of ALL the content found between beginMark and endMark with replacement. The beginMark and endMark are included in what is replaced if replaceMarks is True.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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ReplaceBetween
Function ReplaceBetween(ByVal beginMark As String, ByVal endMark As String, ByVal value As String, ByVal replacement As String) As Integer
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Replaces all occurrences of value with replacement, but only where value is found between beginMark and endMark. Returns the number of replacements made.

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ReplaceFirst
Function ReplaceFirst(ByVal value As String, ByVal replacement As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Replaces the first occurrence of a specified string in this instance with another string. Returns True if the value was found and replaced. Otherwise returns False.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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ReplaceI
Function ReplaceI(ByVal value As String, ByVal replacement As Integer) As Integer
Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Replaces all occurrences of value with the decimal integer replacement. Returns the number of replacements.

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ReplaceNoCase
Function ReplaceNoCase(ByVal value As String, ByVal replacement As String) As Integer
Introduced in version 9.5.0.82

Replaces all occurrences of value with replacement (case insensitive). Returns the number of replacements.

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ReplaceWord
Function ReplaceWord(ByVal value As String, ByVal replacement As String) As Integer
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Replaces all word occurrences of a specified string in this instance with another specified string. Returns the number of replacements made.

Important: This method is limited to replacing whole words in strings that only contains characters in the Latin1 charset (i.e. iso-8859-1 or Windows-1252). A whole word can only contain alphanumeric chars where the alpha chars are restricted to those of the Latin1 alpha chars. (The underscore character is also considered part of a word.)

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SecureClear
Sub SecureClear()
Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Removes all characters from the current StringBuilder instance, and write zero bytes to the allocated memory before deallocating.

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SetNth
Function SetNth(ByVal index As Integer, ByVal value As String, ByVal delimiterChar As String, ByVal exceptDoubleQuoted As Boolean, ByVal exceptEscaped As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Sets the Nth substring in string in a list delimted by delimiterChar. The first substring is at index 0. If exceptDoubleQuoted is True, then the delimiter char found between double quotes is not treated as a delimiter. If exceptEscaped is True, then an escaped (with a backslash) delimiter char is not treated as a delimiter.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SetString
Function SetString(ByVal value As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.61

Sets this instance to a copy of the specified string.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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Shorten
Function Shorten(ByVal numChars As Integer) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.87

Shortens the string by removing the last numChars chars.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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StartsWith
Function StartsWith(ByVal substr As String, ByVal caseSensitive As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Returns True if the string starts with substr. Otherwise returns False. The comparison is case sensitive if caseSensitive is True, and case insensitive if caseSensitive is False.

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ToCRLF
Function ToCRLF() As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Converts line endings to CRLF (Windows) format.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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ToLF
Function ToLF() As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Converts line endings to LF-only (UNIX) format.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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ToLowercase
Function ToLowercase() As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Converts the contents to lowercase.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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ToUppercase
Function ToUppercase() As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Converts the contents to uppercase.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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Trim
Function Trim() As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Trims whitespace from both ends of the string.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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TrimInsideSpaces
Function TrimInsideSpaces() As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Replaces all tabs, CR's, and LF's, with SPACE chars, and removes extra SPACE's so there are no occurances of more than one SPACE char in a row.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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Unobfuscate
Sub Unobfuscate()
Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Unobfuscates the string.

The Chilkat string obfuscation algorithm works by taking the utf-8 bytes of the string, base64 encoding it, and then scrambling the letters of the base64 encoded string. It is deterministic in that the same string will always obfuscate to the same result. It is not a secure way of encrypting a string. It is only meant to be a simple means of transforming a string into something unintelligible.

More Information and Examples
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WriteFile
Function WriteFile(ByVal path As String, ByVal charset As String, ByVal emitBom As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Writes the contents to a file. If emitBom is True, then the BOM (also known as a preamble), is emitted for charsets that define a BOM (such as utf-8, utf-16, utf-32, etc.)

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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WriteFileIfModified
Function WriteFileIfModified(ByVal path As String, ByVal charset As String, ByVal emitBom As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.73

Writes the contents to a file, but only if it is a new file or if the contents are different than the existing file. If emitBom is True, then the BOM (also known as a preamble), is emitted for charsets that define a BOM (such as utf-8, utf-16, utf-32, etc.)

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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