thanks for the code, but i was looking for a pure regex one like Mythran
provided.
"Mike Labosh" <mlabosh@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:epRO4G6dFHA.3184@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> We do something like this: (Note that *we here* do not translate letters
> to numbers, as in 1-800-CALL-NOW):
>
> ' This is one of my classes that does dozens
> ' of different kinds of string manipulation
> Public Class Transform
>
> Private _cleanPhone As New Regex("\D")
>
> ' Other declarations...
>
> ' Note that since strings are also immutable, I pass
> ' the input to this method as ByRef instead of ByVal,]
> ' for greater speed.
> Public Sub CleanPhoneNumber(ByRef value As String)
> value = _cleanPhone.Replace(value, "")
> End Sub
>
> ' Other Methods...
>
> End Class
>
> So in the client, if I do this:
>
> Dim tx As New Transform()
> Dim phone As String
> ' load my data table (dt)
>
> For Each dr As DataRow In dt.Rows
> phone = dr("phone").ToString()
> phone = tx.CleanPhoneNumber(phone)
>
> ' now I have 1234567890
> ' and then I have line like Joseph's code snip:
> dr("phone") = _
> "(" & phone.substring(0,3) & ") " & _
> phone.substring("3,3) & "-" & _
> phone.substring(6,4)
>
> ' now I have (123) 456-7890
>
> Next
>
> da.Update(dt) ' give it to a SqlDataAdapter
>
>
> Note that this format only works with NANP (3 digits)-(7 digits) phone
> numbers, as are found in the US, Canada and a few other countries. Here's
> a good reference for other international phone numbers:
>
http://www.wtng.info
>
> If you have to deal with international phone numbers, you will have to
> build a table of all countries you're interested in, that contains a
> country code or name, International Prefix, Trunk Prefix and maybe some
> other data from the web site if it concerns you.
>
> I cannot share details because of intellectual property issues, but I
> spent 4 months last year developing a phone number parsing system
> compatible with auto-dialers that can reliably dialy any phone number on
> the planet *from* anywhere on the planet.
>
> The above website was my guide to all the telephone mysteries. :)
>
> While I'm here, I will point out that if you use Regex.Replace() directly
> without creating an instance of Regex, and I bet you're doing this in a
> loop... That's bad.
>
> The static methods of the Regex class incur the overhead of creating and
> destroying a Regex instance. This means that if you do something like
> this:
>
> For Each dr As DataRow In dt.Rows
> Regex.Replace(...)
> Next
>
> What you're doing is the same as this:
>
> For Each dr As DataRow In dt.Rows
> Dim rx As New Regex(...)
> rx.Replace(...)
> rx = Nothing
> Next
>
> So for something like an immutable Regex instance, you should declare an
> instance of it and *then* run your loop:
>
> Dim rx As New Regex(...)
>
> For Each dr As DataRow In dt.Rows
> rx.Replace(...)
> Next
>
> The difference between the first loop and the last loop is that the first
> one will create and destroy one instance of Regex per each record in your
> DataTable. The last loop, directly above, use only a single instance of
> Regex. The difference between the two depends on how many records you're
> processing. In our case, the difference was astronomical. When we clean
> phone numbers, it could be close to a million at a time. Just imagine
> what the previous loop would have done to the Garbage Collector! :)
>
>
> --
> Peace & happy computing,
>
> Mike Labosh, MCSD
>
> "Mr. McKittrick, after very careful consideration, I have
> come to the conclusion that this new system SUCKS."
> -- General Barringer, "War Games"
>[/color]
