This is probably what you are looking for: > x <- "TICKER.GGG.XXXXXX.dat" > sub("^.*?\\.([^.]+).*", "\\1", x, perl=TRUE) [1] "GGG" > x <- "TICKER.GGGabce.XXXXXX.dat" > sub("^.*?\\.([^.]+).*", "\\1", x, perl=TRUE) [1] "GGGabce"
On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 12:27 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have strings of the form > > TICKER.GGG.XXXXXX.dat > > but GGG is not always three characters so I can't use substr to pull it out > of the string. > > Could someone tell me how to use sub to pull out the GGG but more generally > the string between the dot after the R in TICKER and the next > dot. I still don't have a very good understanding of regular expressions > but I'm trying to get that slowly. thanks. > > ______________________________________________ > 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. > -- Jim Holtman Cincinnati, OH +1 513 646 9390 What is the problem you are trying to solve? ______________________________________________ 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.