R help - Apr 2016 - Please assist -- Unable to remove '-' character from char vector--

Hi,
I have a char vector with year values. Some cells have single year
value '2001-' and some have range like 1996-2007.
I need to remove hyphen character '-' from all the values within the
character vector named as 'end'. After removing the hyphen I need to
get the last
number from the cells where there are year range values i.e if the
cell has range 1996-2007, the code should return me 2007.

How could I get this done?

 Below are the values within this char vector:
> end
 [1] "2001-"            "1992-"            "2013-"
"2013-"
          "2013-"            "2013-"
 [7] "2003-"            "2010-"            "2009-"
"1986-"
          "2012-"            "2003-"
[13] "2005-"            "2013-"            "2003-"
"2013-"
          "1993?2007, 2010-" "2012-"
[19] "1984?1992, 1996-" "2015-"            "2009-"
"2000-"
          "2005-"            "1997-"
[25] "2012-"            "1997-"            "2002-"
"2006-"
          "1992-"            "2007-"
[31] "1997-"            "1982-"            "2015-"
"2015-"
          "2010-"            "1996?2007, 2011-"
[37] "2004-"            "1999-"            "2007-"
"1996-"
          "2013-"            "2012-"
[43] "2012-"            "2010-"            "2011-"
"1994-"
          "2014-"

I tried below command--> gsub('[-|,]', '', end)
This did remove all the hyphen character but not from cells having
range year values.Below is the result after executing above command:
As you see hypphen character is removed from single values but not
from ranges. Please guide.
> gsub('[-|,]', '', end)
 [1] "2001"           "1992"           "2013"     
"2013"
  "2013"           "2013"           "2003"
 [8] "2010"           "2009"           "1986"     
"2012"
  "2003"           "2005"           "2013"
[15] "2003"           "2013"           "1993?2007
2010" "2012"
  "1984?1992 1996" "2015"           "2009"
[22] "2000"           "2005"           "1997"     
"2012"
  "1997"           "2002"           "2006"
[29] "1992"           "2007"           "1997"     
"1982"
  "2015"           "2015"           "2010"
[36] "1996?2007 2011" "2004"           "1999"     
"2007"
  "1996"           "2013"           "2012"
[43] "2012"           "2010"           "2011"     
"1994"
  "2014"

Regards,
Sunny Singha

Hi Sunny,
Try this:

# notice that I have replaced the fancy hyphens with real hyphens
end<-c("2001-","1992-","2013-","2013-","2013-","2013-",
 "1993-2007","2010-","2012-","1984-1992","1996-","2015-")
splitends<-sapply(end,strsplit,"-")
last_bit(x) return(x[length(x)])
sapply(splitends,last_bit)

Jim

On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 4:35 PM, Sunny Singha
<sunnysingha.analytics at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> I have a char vector with year values. Some cells have single year
> value '2001-' and some have range like 1996-2007.
> I need to remove hyphen character '-' from all the values within
the
> character vector named as 'end'. After removing the hyphen I need
to
> get the last
> number from the cells where there are year range values i.e if the
> cell has range 1996-2007, the code should return me 2007.
>
> How could I get this done?
>
>  Below are the values within this char vector:
>
>> end
>  [1] "2001-"            "1992-"           
"2013-"            "2013-"
>           "2013-"            "2013-"
>  [7] "2003-"            "2010-"           
"2009-"            "1986-"
>           "2012-"            "2003-"
> [13] "2005-"            "2013-"           
"2003-"            "2013-"
>           "1993?2007, 2010-" "2012-"
> [19] "1984?1992, 1996-" "2015-"           
"2009-"            "2000-"
>           "2005-"            "1997-"
> [25] "2012-"            "1997-"           
"2002-"            "2006-"
>           "1992-"            "2007-"
> [31] "1997-"            "1982-"           
"2015-"            "2015-"
>           "2010-"            "1996?2007, 2011-"
> [37] "2004-"            "1999-"           
"2007-"            "1996-"
>           "2013-"            "2012-"
> [43] "2012-"            "2010-"           
"2011-"            "1994-"
>           "2014-"
>
> I tried below command--> gsub('[-|,]', '', end)
> This did remove all the hyphen character but not from cells having
> range year values.Below is the result after executing above command:
> As you see hypphen character is removed from single values but not
> from ranges. Please guide.
>
>> gsub('[-|,]', '', end)
>  [1] "2001"           "1992"           "2013"
"2013"
>   "2013"           "2013"           "2003"
>  [8] "2010"           "2009"           "1986"
"2012"
>   "2003"           "2005"           "2013"
> [15] "2003"           "2013"           "1993?2007
2010" "2012"
>   "1984?1992 1996" "2015"           "2009"
> [22] "2000"           "2005"           "1997"
"2012"
>   "1997"           "2002"           "2006"
> [29] "1992"           "2007"           "1997"
"1982"
>   "2015"           "2015"           "2010"
> [36] "1996?2007 2011" "2004"           "1999"
"2007"
>   "1996"           "2013"           "2012"
> [43] "2012"           "2010"           "2011"
"1994"
>   "2014"
>
> Regards,
> Sunny Singha
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> 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.

Hi
> -----Original Message-----
> From: R-help [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Jim
Lemon
> Sent: Monday, April 25, 2016 9:10 AM
> To: Sunny Singha <sunnysingha.analytics at gmail.com>
> Cc: r-help <r-help at r-project.org>; Sandeep Singha
> <sandeep.singha at acrotrend.com>
> Subject: Re: [R] Please assist -- Unable to remove '-' character
from char
> vector--
>
> Hi Sunny,
> Try this:
>
> # notice that I have replaced the fancy hyphens with real hyphens
>
end<-c("2001-","1992-","2013-","2013-","2013-","2013-",
> 
"1993-2007","2010-","2012-","1984-1992","1996-","2015-")
> splitends<-sapply(end,strsplit,"-")
> last_bit(x) return(x[length(x)])
You probably meant
last_bit <- function(x) return(x[length(x)])
> sapply(splitends,last_bit)
And good finalisation is

as.numeric(sapply(splitends,last_bit))

Cheers
Petr
>
> Jim
>
> On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 4:35 PM, Sunny Singha
> <sunnysingha.analytics at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> > I have a char vector with year values. Some cells have single year
> > value '2001-' and some have range like 1996-2007.
> > I need to remove hyphen character '-' from all the values
within the
> > character vector named as 'end'. After removing the hyphen I
need to
> > get the last
> > number from the cells where there are year range values i.e if the
> > cell has range 1996-2007, the code should return me 2007.
> >
> > How could I get this done?
> >
> >  Below are the values within this char vector:
> >
> >> end
> >  [1] "2001-"            "1992-"           
"2013-"            "2013-"
> >           "2013-"            "2013-"
> >  [7] "2003-"            "2010-"           
"2009-"            "1986-"
> >           "2012-"            "2003-"
> > [13] "2005-"            "2013-"           
"2003-"            "2013-"
> >           "1993?2007, 2010-" "2012-"
> > [19] "1984?1992, 1996-" "2015-"           
"2009-"            "2000-"
> >           "2005-"            "1997-"
> > [25] "2012-"            "1997-"           
"2002-"            "2006-"
> >           "1992-"            "2007-"
> > [31] "1997-"            "1982-"           
"2015-"            "2015-"
> >           "2010-"            "1996?2007, 2011-"
> > [37] "2004-"            "1999-"           
"2007-"            "1996-"
> >           "2013-"            "2012-"
> > [43] "2012-"            "2010-"           
"2011-"            "1994-"
> >           "2014-"
> >
> > I tried below command--> gsub('[-|,]', '', end)
> > This did remove all the hyphen character but not from cells having
> > range year values.Below is the result after executing above command:
> > As you see hypphen character is removed from single values but not
> > from ranges. Please guide.
> >
> >> gsub('[-|,]', '', end)
> >  [1] "2001"           "1992"          
"2013"           "2013"
> >   "2013"           "2013"          
"2003"
> >  [8] "2010"           "2009"          
"1986"           "2012"
> >   "2003"           "2005"          
"2013"
> > [15] "2003"           "2013"          
"1993?2007 2010" "2012"
> >   "1984?1992 1996" "2015"          
"2009"
> > [22] "2000"           "2005"          
"1997"           "2012"
> >   "1997"           "2002"          
"2006"
> > [29] "1992"           "2007"          
"1997"           "1982"
> >   "2015"           "2015"          
"2010"
> > [36] "1996?2007 2011" "2004"          
"1999"           "2007"
> >   "1996"           "2013"          
"2012"
> > [43] "2012"           "2010"          
"2011"           "1994"
> >   "2014"
> >
> > Regards,
> > Sunny Singha
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> > 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.
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> 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.
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Thank you Jim,
The code did assist me to get the what I needed.
Also, I learnt that there are different types of dashes
(en-dash/em-dash/hyphen) as explained on this site :
http://www.punctuationmatters.com/hyphen-dash-n-dash-and-m-dash/

I achieved it by executing below command after going through this page
on stackoverflow:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9223795/how-to-correctly-deal-with-escaped-unicode-characters-in-r-e-g-the-em-dash

splitends<-sapply(end,strsplit,"-|\u2013|,")

where '\u2013' is, i guess, the unicode for en-dash/em-dash character
in the ranges values.
I had scrapped the HTML table from this web page :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Heritage_in_Danger
and range values does have en-dash characters.

For now the issue is resolved but how does one capture values similar
to  '\u2013' for other possible special cases to be specified in the
regex ?

Regards,
Sunny Singha.


On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 12:39 PM, Jim Lemon <drjimlemon at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi Sunny,
> Try this:
>
> # notice that I have replaced the fancy hyphens with real hyphens
>
end<-c("2001-","1992-","2013-","2013-","2013-","2013-",
> 
"1993-2007","2010-","2012-","1984-1992","1996-","2015-")
> splitends<-sapply(end,strsplit,"-")
> last_bit(x) return(x[length(x)])
> sapply(splitends,last_bit)
>
> Jim
>
> On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 4:35 PM, Sunny Singha
> <sunnysingha.analytics at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I have a char vector with year values. Some cells have single year
>> value '2001-' and some have range like 1996-2007.
>> I need to remove hyphen character '-' from all the values
within the
>> character vector named as 'end'. After removing the hyphen I
need to
>> get the last
>> number from the cells where there are year range values i.e if the
>> cell has range 1996-2007, the code should return me 2007.
>>
>> How could I get this done?
>>
>>  Below are the values within this char vector:
>>
>>> end
>>  [1] "2001-"            "1992-"           
"2013-"            "2013-"
>>           "2013-"            "2013-"
>>  [7] "2003-"            "2010-"           
"2009-"            "1986-"
>>           "2012-"            "2003-"
>> [13] "2005-"            "2013-"           
"2003-"            "2013-"
>>           "1993?2007, 2010-" "2012-"
>> [19] "1984?1992, 1996-" "2015-"           
"2009-"            "2000-"
>>           "2005-"            "1997-"
>> [25] "2012-"            "1997-"           
"2002-"            "2006-"
>>           "1992-"            "2007-"
>> [31] "1997-"            "1982-"           
"2015-"            "2015-"
>>           "2010-"            "1996?2007, 2011-"
>> [37] "2004-"            "1999-"           
"2007-"            "1996-"
>>           "2013-"            "2012-"
>> [43] "2012-"            "2010-"           
"2011-"            "1994-"
>>           "2014-"
>>
>> I tried below command--> gsub('[-|,]', '', end)
>> This did remove all the hyphen character but not from cells having
>> range year values.Below is the result after executing above command:
>> As you see hypphen character is removed from single values but not
>> from ranges. Please guide.
>>
>>> gsub('[-|,]', '', end)
>>  [1] "2001"           "1992"          
"2013"           "2013"
>>   "2013"           "2013"          
"2003"
>>  [8] "2010"           "2009"          
"1986"           "2012"
>>   "2003"           "2005"          
"2013"
>> [15] "2003"           "2013"          
"1993?2007 2010" "2012"
>>   "1984?1992 1996" "2015"          
"2009"
>> [22] "2000"           "2005"          
"1997"           "2012"
>>   "1997"           "2002"          
"2006"
>> [29] "1992"           "2007"          
"1997"           "1982"
>>   "2015"           "2015"          
"2010"
>> [36] "1996?2007 2011" "2004"          
"1999"           "2007"
>>   "1996"           "2013"          
"2012"
>> [43] "2012"           "2010"          
"2011"           "1994"
>>   "2014"
>>
>> Regards,
>> Sunny Singha
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>> 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.