If everything Regular Expressions could do could be done with globbing then RE would likely not exist.
I have interpreted your problem as: Start at the beginning of the string ("^") match stuff that is not a colon ("[^:]") match a colon (":') keep stuff that is not a comma ("([^,]*)") match a comma (",") keep stuff that is not a right brace ("([^}]*)") match a right brace and comma ("},") match any characters (".*") up to the end of the string ("$") and then substitute that whole matched string with the first kept match ("\\1") a comma (",") the second kept match ("\\2") which gives sub("^[^:]*:([^,]*),[^:]*:([^}]*)},.*$","\\1,\\2",initString) The separator comma could be wrapped with the first and second kept matches in this case to make a single kept match.. I was just methodically working my way through your pattern finding pieces of interest. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Newmiller The ..... ..... Go Live... DCN:<jdnew...@dcn.davis.ca.us> Basics: ##.#. ##.#. Live Go... Live: OO#.. Dead: OO#.. Playing Research Engineer (Solar/Batteries O.O#. #.O#. with /Software/Embedded Controllers) .OO#. .OO#. rocks...1k --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity. On June 30, 2014 6:13:18 AM PDT, Jim Lemon <j...@bitwrit.com.au> wrote: >Hi all, >I have managed, with the help of glob2rx() to get two parts of a text >manipulation working. I have successfully gotten rid of the first and >second bits, but I have hit the wall trying to get rid of the last bit. >Here's >an example: > >initString<- > "\"Delete this\":value1,\"Delete this too\":value2},Delete last bit" >sub("\"Delete this too\":","", > sub(glob2rx("*this\":*"),"",initString),fixed=TRUE) > >This gives me: > >[1] "value1,value2},Delete last bit" > >and glob2rx("},*") just won't get rid of the last bit. I throw myself >upon >the mercy of the regular expression gurus. > >Jim > >______________________________________________ >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.