R help - Jun 2005 - Is it possible to get the first letter of a word?

Hi,
I would to get the first letter of a word like:
> title_cat
       TitleCat
1     Training
 
I would like T from Training!

Thnaks a lot for your help
 
Sabine

		
---------------------------------

 T侀l侀chargez le ici !  
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Navarre Sabine wrote:
> Hi,
> I would to get the first letter of a word like:
> 
> 
>>title_cat
> 
>        TitleCat
> 1     Training
>  
> I would like T from Training!
> 
> Thnaks a lot for your help
>

substr(title_cat,1,1)

Uwe Ligges
> Sabine
> 
> 		
> ---------------------------------
> 
>  T??l??chargez le ici !  
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide!
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html

Use substring() or substr().

Andy
> From: Navarre Sabine
> 
> Hi,
> I would to get the first letter of a word like:
> 
> > title_cat
>        TitleCat
> 1     Training
>  
> I would like T from Training!
> 
> Thnaks a lot for your help
>  
> Sabine
> 
> 		
> ---------------------------------
> 
>  T??l??chargez le ici !  
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
>

you could use substr(), e.g.,

x <- c("asf", "dfds", "fdfdf dfd", "ehf rf
ngfjvf", "gfg ")
substr(x, 1, 1)


I hope it helps.

Best,
Dimitris

----
Dimitris Rizopoulos
Ph.D. Student
Biostatistical Centre
School of Public Health
Catholic University of Leuven

Address: Kapucijnenvoer 35, Leuven, Belgium
Tel: +32/16/336899
Fax: +32/16/337015
Web: http://www.med.kuleuven.be/biostat/
     http://www.student.kuleuven.ac.be/~m0390867/dimitris.htm




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Navarre Sabine" <navarre_sabine at yahoo.fr>
To: <r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch>
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 4:42 PM
Subject: [R] Is it possible to get the first letter of a word?

> Hi,
> I would to get the first letter of a word like:
>
>> title_cat
>       TitleCat
> 1     Training
>
> I would like T from Training!
>
> Thnaks a lot for your help
>
> Sabine
>
>
> ---------------------------------
>
> T??l??chargez le ici !
> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
>

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide! 
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html

?substring

Navarre Sabine wrote:
> Hi,
> I would to get the first letter of a word like:
> 
> 
>>title_cat
> 
>        TitleCat
> 1     Training
>  
> I would like T from Training!
> 
> Thnaks a lot for your help
>  
> Sabine
> 
> 		
> ---------------------------------
> 
>  T??l??chargez le ici !  
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide!
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
-- 
Chuck Cleland, Ph.D.
NDRI, Inc.
71 West 23rd Street, 8th floor
New York, NY 10010
tel: (212) 845-4495 (Tu, Th)
tel: (732) 452-1424 (M, W, F)
fax: (917) 438-0894

or What about;
> strsplit("Training", split="")[[1]][1]
[1] "T"

____________________
Ken Knoblauch
Inserm U371, Cerveau et Vision
Department of Cognitive Neurosciences
18 avenue du Doyen Lepine
69500 Bron
France
tel: +33 (0)4 72 91 34 77
fax: +33 (0)4 72 91 34 61
portable: 06 84 10 64 10
http://www.lyon.inserm.fr/371/

On Wed, 2005-06-22 at 16:42 +0200, Navarre Sabine wrote:
> Hi,
> I would to get the first letter of a word like:
> 
> > title_cat
>        TitleCat
> 1     Training
>  
> I would like T from Training!
> 
> Thnaks a lot for your help
>  
> Sabine

There are multiple approaches, but you need to be careful, since it
appears that your object is a factor. Thus you may need to convert to a
character vector first:
> title_cat <- factor("Training")
> substr(as.character(title_cat), 1, 1)
[1] "T"


Otherwise:
> title_cat <- "Training"
> substr(title_cat, 1, 1)
[1] "T"

See ?substr for more information.

HTH,

Marc Schwartz