How about: unlist(lapply(strsplit(text1, "Example"), function(x) { length(x) - 1 } ))
Splitting your string on the five "Examples" in each gives six elements. length(x) - 1 is the number of matches. You can use any regex instead of "example" if you need to tweak what you are looking for. B. > On Apr 25, 2017, at 8:14 PM, Dan Abner <dan.abne...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi all, > > I am looking for a streamlined way of counting the number of enumerated > items are each element of a character vector. For example: > > > text1<-c("This is an example. > List 1 > 1) Example 1 > 2) Example 2 > 10) Example 10 > List 2 > 1) Example 1 > 2) Example 2 > These have been examples.","This is another example. > List 1 > 1. Example 1 > 2. Example 2 > 10. Example 10 > List 2 > 1. Example 1 > 2. Example 2 > These have been examples.","This is a third example. List 1 1) Example 1. > 2) Example 2. 10) Example 10. List 2 1) Example 1. 2) Example 2. These have > been examples." > ,"This is a fourth example. List 1 1. Example 1. 2. Example 2. 10. Example > 10. List 2 Example 1. 2. Example 2. These have been examples.") > > text1 > > === > > I would like the result to be c(5,5,5,5). Notice that sometimes there are > leading hard returns, other times not. Sometimes are there separate lists > and the same numbers are used in the enumerated items multiple times within > each character string. Sometimes the leading numbers for the enumerated > items exceed single digits. Notice that the delimiter may be ) or a period > (.). If the delimiter is a period and there are hard returns (example 2), > then I expect that will be easy enough to differentiate sentences ending > with a number from enumerated items. However, I imagine it would be much > more difficult to differentiate the two for example 4. > > Any suggestions are appreciated. > > Best, > > Dan > > [[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. ______________________________________________ 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.