title: Making State abbreviations from State Names
body: <p>Is there built in .NET functionality for making state abbreviations out of state names?</p>
  
  <p>I know the function wouldn't be difficult to write, but I would assume that MS has thought of a more efficient way than the following x50: </p>
  
  <pre><code>if statename.tolower = "new york" then 
    statename = "NY"
  else if
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>any other thoughts of making this more efficient are also appreciated. </p>