gsub("\\_.*","",x) This assume "_" if the first character following the numbers. You may need a character class if it can be one of several.
?gsub ?regex for further (terse for the latter) details. Bert Gunter Genentech Nonclinical Biostatisics -----Original Message----- From: r-help-boun...@r-project.org [mailto:r-help-boun...@r-project.org] On Behalf Of stephen sefick Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 12:51 PM To: r-help@r-project.org Subject: [R] splitting a string up x <- "1041281__2009_08_20_.lev" I would like to split this string up and only extract the leading numbers. 1041281 to use as a label for a data column in a bigger for loop function to read in data. regards, -- Stephen Sefick Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are so little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and make us feel like gods. We are mammals, and have not exhausted the annoying little problems of being mammals. -K. Mullis ______________________________________________ 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.