R help - Apr 2011 - How to replace 'star (*)' with blank space?

Hi There

I'm not very sure how to replace the stars in a character vector

For example:

a character vector (n rows by 1 col)

[1] "-27  -21  -25    -28****  *****  -29"
[2] "-27  ********     -28****  *****  -29"
.
.
.
.
.
.
[n] "-1***********************************"

I wish to replace all the *s with a blank, result as per below

[1] "-27  -21  -25    -28               -29"
[2] "-27                 -28               -29"
.
.
.
.
.
.
[n] "-1                                            "

I have tried to use gsub( )
like: gsub("*", "", x)
but doesn't seem to be working...please advise

Thank you

Ruby

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

gsub("\\*", " ",x)

should do. Please read about regular expression as used by gsub().

Uwe Ligges


On 20.04.2011 12:00, Ruby Chu wrote:
> Hi There
>
> I'm not very sure how to replace the stars in a character vector
>
> For example:
>
> a character vector (n rows by 1 col)
>
> [1] "-27  -21  -25    -28****  *****  -29"
> [2] "-27  ********     -28****  *****  -29"
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> [n] "-1***********************************"
>
> I wish to replace all the *s with a blank, result as per below
>
> [1] "-27  -21  -25    -28               -29"
> [2] "-27                 -28               -29"
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> [n] "-1                                            "
>
> I have tried to use gsub( )
> like: gsub("*", "", x)
> but doesn't seem to be working...please advise
>
> Thank you
>
> Ruby
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

On Apr 20, 2011, at 6:00 AM, Ruby Chu wrote:
> Hi There
>
> I'm not very sure how to replace the stars in a character vector
>
> For example:
>
> a character vector (n rows by 1 col)
>
> [1] "-27  -21  -25    -28****  *****  -29"
> [2] "-27  ********     -28****  *****  -29"
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> [n] "-1***********************************"
>
> I wish to replace all the *s with a blank, result as per below
>
> [1] "-27  -21  -25    -28               -29"
> [2] "-27                 -28               -29"
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> [n] "-1                                            "
>
> I have tried to use gsub( )
> like: gsub("*", "", x)
"*" is an operator in regex, so you need to double escape it in the  
pattern argument (but may not need to escape it in the replace argument.

 > gsub("\\*", "", "test8888****8888****9999")
[1] "test888888889999"

 > gsub("\\.", "*", "test8888...8888...9999")
[1] "test8888***8888***9999"
> but doesn't seem to be working...please advise
>
> Thank you
>
> Ruby
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT