Hi, I guess there are some problems with spaces in this solution.
y [1] "My toast=bog and eggs omit=32" "dogs have ears" [3] "cats have tails " gsub(" *\\([^)]*\\) *", "", x) #[1] "My toast=bogand eggsomit=32" "dogs have ears" #[3] "cats have tails" You could try this: gsub("(\\(.*\\))+?"," ",x) #[1] "My toast=bog and eggs omit=32" "dogs have ears" #[3] "cats have tails " A.K. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Adams, Jean" <jvad...@usgs.gov> To: r-help@r-project.org Cc: Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2012 6:03 PM Subject: Re: [R] replace parenthetical phrases in a string My apologies. I sent too soon! I did a bit more digging, and found a solution on the R-help archives. y <- gsub(" *\\([^)]*\\) *", "", x) Jean On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 4:53 PM, Adams, Jean <jvad...@usgs.gov> wrote: > R-helpers, > > I have a vector of character strings in which I would like to replace each > parenthetical phrase with a single space, " ". For example if I start with > x, I would like to end up with y. > > x <- c("My toast=bog(keep=3 no=4) and eggs(er34)omit=32", > "dogs have ears", > "cats have tails (and ears, too!)") > > y <- c("My toast=bog and eggs omit=32", > "dogs have ears", > "cats have tails ") > > I'm guessing that this can be done with gsub(), but I have never mastered > the mysteries of regular expressions. > > I would greatly appreciate any pointers. > > Thanks. > > Jean > > P.S. I'm using R version 2.15.2 on Windows 7. > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@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. ______________________________________________ R-help@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.