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The .NET String.Format and Microsoft.VisualBasic.Format methods indeed lack the capability to apply the kind of string-specific formatting that VB6's Format function provided, like forcing uppercase, lowercase, or mixed casing as shown in your example. The ability to format strings in such a nuanced way was removed without much mention, as you noticed.

However, you can implement similar functionality using other approaches in .NET: You can manually manipulate strings to achieve a similar effect. For example:

Dim original As String = "hi there"
Dim upperCase As String = original.ToUpper()
Dim lowerCase As String = original.ToLower()

You could write a helper function that mimics some of VB6’s string-formatting capabilities. For instance, to handle uppercase, lowercase, or a mix of custom patterns, you could create something like:

Function FormatString(input As String, format As String) As String
    Select Case format
        Case ">"
            Return input.ToUpper()
        Case "<"
            Return input.ToLower()
        Case ">!"
            Return StrConv(input, VbStrConv.ProperCase)
        ' You can add more patterns here as needed
        Case Else
            Return input ' Default case
    End Select
End Function

' Example usage:
Console.WriteLine(FormatString("hi there", ">")) ' Outputs: HI THERE
Console.WriteLine(FormatString("hI tHeRe", "<")) ' Outputs: hi there

For more complex formatting patterns (like format$("hi there", ">!@@@... not @@@@@")), consider using regular expressions. Here's an example of how you might replace custom patterns:

Function CustomFormat(input As String, pattern As String) As String
    ' Example: Replace @ with actual input text
    Dim result As String = pattern.Replace("@", input)
    If pattern.Contains(">") Then
        result = result.ToUpper()
    ElseIf pattern.Contains("<") Then
        result = result.ToLower()
    End If
    Return result
End Function

' Example usage:
Console.WriteLine(CustomFormat("hi there", ">!@@@... not @@@@@"))
' This would output: HI ... not THERE

StrConv can help with some of the legacy string formatting. It includes options like VbStrConv.Uppercase, VbStrConv.Lowercase, and VbStrConv.ProperCase:

Dim result As String = StrConv("hi there", VbStrConv.Uppercase) ' Outputs: HI THERE

None of these is a direct replacement for VB6’s Format, but together, they can help replicate the lost functionality. If you frequently use this type of string formatting, creating a small utility class with the above functions would make your code more manageable.

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