parameter replacement in a string similar to mysql - vb.net

Question

I am trying to create a user modifiable string that will have already set data to replace certain patches of text
example
dim name1 as string = "John"
dim state as string = "Virginia"
dim idnumb as integer = 122
dim textlist1 as string
textlist1 = "Hello {NAME}, I see you are from {STATE}, and your id number is {ID}."
Ideally I would want to replace these tags with the set strings
I am familiar with
Replace(textlist1, "{NAME}", name1)
my question is: is this the correct way to do this or is there a method more similar to the way we do parameters in MySql

Answer 1

Ideally you could use StringBuilder to avoid the reallocation of a new string for every replace.
dim name1 as string = "John"
dim state as string = "Virginia"
dim idnumb as integer = 122
dim textlist1 as StringBuilder = new StringBuilder _
("Hello {NAME}, I see you are from {STATE}, and your id number is {ID}.")
textlist1.Replace("{NAME}", name1)
As supposed the StringBuilder approach is not the best for performance related comparisons
This is just a little benchmark executed via LinqPad
Sub Main
dim name1 as string = "John"
dim state as string = "Virginia"
dim idnumb as integer = 122
dim textlist1 as StringBuilder
Dim sw = new Stopwatch()
sw.Start()
for i = 0 to 100000
textlist1 = new StringBuilder("Hello {NAME}, I see you are from {STATE}, and your id number is {ID}.")
textlist1.Replace("{NAME}", name1)
textlist1.Replace("{STATE}", state)
textlist1.Replace("{ID}", idnumb.ToString())
Next
sw.Stop()
sw.Elapsed.Dump("StringBuilder.Replace")
sw = new Stopwatch()
sw.Start()
for i = 0 to 100000
Dim test = "Hello {NAME}, I see you are from {STATE}, and your id number is {ID}."
Dim test2 = test.Replace("{NAME}", name1)
Dim test3 = test2.Replace("{STATE}", state)
Dim test4 = test3.Replace("{ID}", idnumb.ToString())
Next
sw.Stop()
sw.Elapsed.Dump("String.Replace")
End Sub
StringBuilder.Replace
00:00:00.2795878
String.Replace
00:00:00.1642420
So it seems that the cost to allocate a string builder outweight the cost to use a fixed interned string. Of course the memory fragmentation caused by the immutable string behavior is not easily measurable.