C# How to replace Microsoft’s Smart Quotes with straight quotation marks?

by

A more extensive listing of problematic word characters

if (buffer.IndexOf('\u2013') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace('\u2013', '-');
if (buffer.IndexOf('\u2014') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace('\u2014', '-');
if (buffer.IndexOf('\u2015') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace('\u2015', '-');
if (buffer.IndexOf('\u2017') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace('\u2017', '_');
if (buffer.IndexOf('\u2018') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace('\u2018', '\'');
if (buffer.IndexOf('\u2019') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace('\u2019', '\'');
if (buffer.IndexOf('\u201a') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace('\u201a', ',');
if (buffer.IndexOf('\u201b') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace('\u201b', '\'');
if (buffer.IndexOf('\u201c') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace('\u201c', '\"');
if (buffer.IndexOf('\u201d') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace('\u201d', '\"');
if (buffer.IndexOf('\u201e') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace('\u201e', '\"');
if (buffer.IndexOf('\u2026') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace("\u2026", "...");
if (buffer.IndexOf('\u2032') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace('\u2032', '\'');
if (buffer.IndexOf('\u2033') > -1) buffer = buffer.Replace('\u2033', '\"');

When I encountered this problem I wrote an extension method to the String class in C#.

public static class StringExtensions
{
    public static string StripIncompatableQuotes(this string inputStr)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(inputStr))
        {
            return inputStr;
        }
        
        return inputStr.Replace('\u2018', '\'').Replace('\u2019', '\'').Replace('\u201c', '\"').Replace('\u201d', '\"');
    }
}

This simply replaces the silly ‘smart quotes’ with normal quotes.

[EDIT] Fixed to also support replacement of ‘double smart quotes’.

More Related Contents:

  1. Reading CSV files using C#
  2. .NET Process.Start default directory?
  3. How do I read a specified line in a text file?
  4. How to save MailMessage object to disk as *.eml or *.msg file
  5. What does the ‘=>’ syntax in C# mean?
  6. Web Reference vs. Service Reference
  7. C#: Overriding return types
  8. Why is The Iteration Variable in a C# foreach statement read-only?
  9. Why use String.Format? [duplicate]
  10. How to Create Deterministic Guids
  11. Why do local variables require initialization, but fields do not?
  12. Generate a self-signed certificate on the fly
  13. Programmatically add an application to Windows Firewall
  14. Text difference algorithm
  15. Center multiple rows of controls in a FlowLayoutPanel
  16. Mocking EF DbContext with Moq
  17. C# add validation on a setter method
  18. c# convert string expression to a boolean expression [closed]
  19. .NET virus scanning API
  20. The LINQ expression could not be translated and will be evaluated locally
  21. Default implementation in interface is not seen by the compiler?
  22. How Can I add properties to a class on runtime in C#?
  23. Byte to Binary String C# – Display all 8 digits
  24. How to get img/src or a/hrefs using Html Agility Pack?
  25. C# and thread-safety of a bool
  26. The algorithm to find the point of intersection of two 3D line segment
  27. Workflow Design Dilemma – State Machine, yes or no
  28. Print html document from Windows Service in C# without print dialog
  29. C#: How to make Sieve of Atkin incremental
  30. Decompressing password-protected ZIP files with .NET 4.5

Leave a Comment