First, use [[:blank:]] instead of [:blank:]. that latter matches colon, b, l, a, n, and k, the former whitespace.
Second, put + after [[:blank:]] to match one or more of them. Bill Dunlap TIBCO Software wdunlap tibco.com On Tue, Aug 2, 2016 at 9:46 AM, Dennis Fisher <fis...@plessthan.com> wrote: > R 3.3.1 > OS X > > Colleagues, > > I have encountered an unexpected regex problem > > I have read an Excel file into R using the readxl package. Columns names > are: > > COLNAMES <- c("Study ID", "Test and Biological Matrix", "Subject > No. ", "Collection Date", > "Collection Time", "Scheduled Time Point", "Concentration", "Concentration > Units", > "LLOQ", "ULOQ", "Comment”) > > As you can see, there is a trailing space in “Subject No. “. I would like > to delete that space. The following works: > sub(“ $”, “”, COLNAMES) > However, I would like a more general approach that removes any trailing > whitespace. > > I tried variations such as: > sub("[:blank:]$", "", COLNAMES) > (also, without the $ and ‘space' instead of ‘blank') without success — to > my surprise, characters other than the trailing space were deleted but the > trailing space remained. > > Guidance on the correct syntax would be appreciated. > > Dennis > > Dennis Fisher MD > P < (The "P Less Than" Company) > Phone / Fax: 1-866-PLessThan (1-866-753-7784) > www.PLessThan.com > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@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. [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@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.