R help - May 2011 - Find String Between Characters

Dear R Helpers,

I am trying to isolate a set of characters between two other characters in
a long string file.  I tried some of the examples on the R help pages and
elsewhere, but I am not able to get it.  Your help would be much
appreciated.

require(scrapeR)
mmm<-scrape(url="http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000320193&owner=exclude&count=40")
str(mmm)

I want to get the number 0000320193 that is between the CIK= and the &.  I
have tried

g <- grep( "CIK=|&", mmm )
and
temp<-grep(mmm,\CIK=\&)

and variations on these themes, but all won't run or come bask as an empty
object.  How can I grab this number?

Best wishes,
--John J. Sparks, Ph.D.

Is this what you want:
>
mmm<-"http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000320193&owner=exclude&count=40"
> num <- sub("^.*CIK=([0-9]+).*", "\\1", mmm)
> num
[1] "0000320193"
>

On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 8:20 PM, Sparks, John James <jspark4 at uic.edu>
wrote:
> Dear R Helpers,
>
> I am trying to isolate a set of characters between two other characters in
> a long string file. ?I tried some of the examples on the R help pages and
> elsewhere, but I am not able to get it. ?Your help would be much
> appreciated.
>
> require(scrapeR)
>
mmm<-scrape(url="http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000320193&owner=exclude&count=40")
> str(mmm)
>
> I want to get the number 0000320193 that is between the CIK= and the &.
?I
> have tried
>
> g <- grep( "CIK=|&", mmm )
> and
> temp<-grep(mmm,\CIK=\&)
>
> and variations on these themes, but all won't run or come bask as an
empty
> object. ?How can I grab this number?
>
> Best wishes,
> --John J. Sparks, Ph.D.
>
> ______________________________________________
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> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>


-- 
Jim Holtman
Data Munger Guru

What is the problem that you are trying to solve?