R help - Mar 2014 - Substitute German "Umlauts" with function

Hi everybody

 

I guess my problem is pretty easy to solve, but I didn't manage to get it
working...

 

Me, as a Swiss, I'm trying to substitute German "Umlauts" (ä, ü,
ö) in a
string variable in a dataset; meaning "ä" to "ae",
"ü", to "ue" and "ö" to
"oe".

Here's a reproducible example:

 

# defining dataset

d.data <- as.data.frame(cbind(c("äzÄzüzÜZöZÖ"), c(rnorm(1))))

# defining "Umlauts"

 

a <- c("ä", "ae")

A <- c("Ä", "Ae")

u <- c("ü", "ue")

U <- c("Ü", "Ue")

o <- c("ö", "oe")

O <- c("Ö", "Oe")

 

# Matrix of substitutions

 

m <- cbind(a,A,u,U,o,O, deparse.level=0)

 

I’m trying to write a function that does replace the "Umlauts" by the
appropriate substitute. Here's what I have so far:

 

swiss1 <- function(m, data){

  gsub(paste(m[,1], sep=",")[1],paste(m[,1], sep=",")[2],
data,
ignore.case=T, perl = F, fixed = F, useBytes = F)

}

 

test1 <- swiss1(m, d.data$V1)

test1
> test
[1] "aezaezüzÜZöZÖ"

 

Apparently this does substitute the first elements of my matrix m. But i
want it to walk through the whole matrix m. So I thought of doing a for loop
inside the function.

 

swiss2 <- function(m, data){

  for (i in ncol(m)){

      gsub(paste(m[,i], sep=",")[1],paste(m[,i],
sep=",")[2], data,
ignore.case=T, perl = F, fixed = F, useBytes = F)

  }

}

 

 

test2<- swiss2(m, d.data$V1)

test2
> test2
NULL

 

What I get then is an empty vector, instead of the original data with the
substituted "Umlauts"

 

Does anybody has a hint..?

 

Thanx very much!

Best, Tobi

 

 


	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Hello,

Maybe with some simple modifications of swiss2. (Note that your 2nd 
function wasn't returning a value.)


swiss2 <- function(m, data){
   for (i in seq_len(ncol(m))){
       data <- gsub(paste(m[,i], sep=",")[1],paste(m[,i],
sep=",")[2], data,
		ignore.case=F, perl = F, fixed = F, useBytes = F)
   }
   data
}

swiss2(m, d.data$V1)
[1] "aezAezuezUeZoeZOe"


Hope this helps

Rui Barradas


Em 01-03-2014 21:45, Tobias Kisch escreveu:
> Hi everybody
>
>
>
> I guess my problem is pretty easy to solve, but I didn't manage to get
it
> working...
>
>
>
> Me, as a Swiss, I'm trying to substitute German "Umlauts" (?,
?, ?) in a
> string variable in a dataset; meaning "?" to "ae",
"?", to "ue" and "?" to
> "oe".
>
> Here's a reproducible example:
>
>
>
> # defining dataset
>
> d.data <- as.data.frame(cbind(c("?z?z?z?Z?Z?"), c(rnorm(1))))
>
> # defining "Umlauts"
>
>
>
> a <- c("?", "ae")
>
> A <- c("?", "Ae")
>
> u <- c("?", "ue")
>
> U <- c("?", "Ue")
>
> o <- c("?", "oe")
>
> O <- c("?", "Oe")
>
>
>
> # Matrix of substitutions
>
>
>
> m <- cbind(a,A,u,U,o,O, deparse.level=0)
>
>
>
> I?m trying to write a function that does replace the "Umlauts" by
the
> appropriate substitute. Here's what I have so far:
>
>
>
> swiss1 <- function(m, data){
>
>    gsub(paste(m[,1], sep=",")[1],paste(m[,1],
sep=",")[2], data,
> ignore.case=T, perl = F, fixed = F, useBytes = F)
>
> }
>
>
>
> test1 <- swiss1(m, d.data$V1)
>
> test1
>
>> test
>
> [1] "aezaez?z?Z?Z?"
>
>
>
> Apparently this does substitute the first elements of my matrix m. But i
> want it to walk through the whole matrix m. So I thought of doing a for
loop
> inside the function.
>
>
>
> swiss2 <- function(m, data){
>
>    for (i in ncol(m)){
>
>        gsub(paste(m[,i], sep=",")[1],paste(m[,i],
sep=",")[2], data,
> ignore.case=T, perl = F, fixed = F, useBytes = F)
>
>    }
>
> }
>
>
>
>
>
> test2<- swiss2(m, d.data$V1)
>
> test2
>
>> test2
>
> NULL
>
>
>
> What I get then is an empty vector, instead of the original data with the
> substituted "Umlauts"
>
>
>
> Does anybody has a hint..?
>
>
>
> Thanx very much!
>
> Best, Tobi
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
>
>
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