Is there a Built in VB.net function to turn quotes into smartquotes

Question

I want to turn

I'm addicted to 'peanuts' and "cocoa"

into

I’m addicted to ‘peanuts’ and “cocoa”

How would I do that? Any built in function for that?

Answer 1

Of course there is no builtin function. How on earth would you leave the 1st single quote unchanged and the 2nd changed. There has to be more logic behind it to give you the result you want. A program that interprets the english language construct, I guess

Of cource I noted the problem AFTER writing something, edit it for your needs, so it's not written for the cat's tail

 Function trSmart(s As String) As String
    Dim inSngl As Boolean = False
    Dim inDbl As Boolean = False
    For i = 1 To s.Length()
        If s(i - 1) = "'"c Then
            If inSngl Then
                s = s.Substring(0, i - 1) & Chr(146) & s.Substring(i)
                inSngl = False
            Else
                s = s.Substring(0, i - 1) & Chr(145) & s.Substring(i)
                inSngl = True
            End If
        ElseIf s(i - 1) = """"c Then
            If inDbl Then
                s = s.Substring(0, i - 1) & Chr(147) & s.Substring(i)
                inDbl = False
            Else
                s = s.Substring(0, i - 1) & Chr(148) & s.Substring(i)
                inDbl = True
            End If
        End If
    Next
    Return s
End Function

Answer 2

This will automatically detect whether a white space is before or after the string and act appropiately.

  Public Function SmartQuotes(ByVal someString As String) As String
        someString = " " + someString + " "
        Dim oldstring = someString
        someString = smarten(someString, "'"c, "‘"c, "’"c)
        someString = smarten(someString, """"c, Chr(147), Chr(148))
        If oldstring = someString Then
            Return Trim(someString)
        Else
            Return SmartQuotes(someString)
        End If
    End Function

    Public Function smarten(ByVal someString As String, ByVal original As Char, ByVal left As Char, ByVal right As Char) As String
        If someString.Contains(original) Then
            Dim index = someString.IndexOf(original)
            If leftQuoteorRightquote(someString, index) Then
                someString = someString.Remove(index, 1).Insert(index, left)
            Else
                someString = someString.Remove(index, 1).Insert(index, right)
            End If
        End If
        Return someString
    End Function
    Public Function leftQuoteorRightquote(ByVal somestring As String, ByVal index As Integer) As Boolean
        If somestring.Substring(index - 1, 1) = " " And somestring.Substring(index + 1, 1) <> " " Then
            Return True
        Else
            Return False
        End If
    End Function