After further investigation it appears that the problem is specific to my Vista PC. I am able to get the correct results using R 2.9.2 on a Window XP 64bit machine. However i do not know why this does not work on my Vista PC. The following was done after rebooting Vista.
>From CMD.exe I ran the following line: C:\Program Files\R\R-2.9.2\bin>Rgui --vanilla This opened up R. ### R 2.9.2 START ### > txt <- c("sales to 23 August 2008 published 29 August", + "sales to 6 September 2008 published 11 September") > > strsplit(txt, 'published', fixed=TRUE) [[1]] [1] "sales to 23 August 2008 " " 29 August" [[2]] [1] "sales to 6 September 2008 " " 11 September" > strsplit(txt, 'published ', fixed=TRUE) [[1]] [1] "sales to 23 August 2008 " "29 August" [[2]] [1] "sales to 6 September 2008 published 11 September" > sessionInfo() R version 2.9.2 (2009-08-24) i386-pc-mingw32 locale: LC_COLLATE=English_United Kingdom.1252;LC_CTYPE=English_United Kingdom.1252;LC_MONETARY=English_United Kingdom.1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=English_United Kingdom.1252 attached base packages: [1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base ### R 2.9.2 END ### The exact same thing happened when I used R 2.9.0 and R 2.8.1 on this same vista computer. ### R 2.9.0 ### > sessionInfo() R version 2.9.0 (2009-04-17) i386-pc-mingw32 locale: LC_COLLATE=English_United Kingdom.1252;LC_CTYPE=English_United Kingdom.1252;LC_MONETARY=English_United Kingdom.1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=English_United Kingdom.1252 attached base packages: [1] stats graphics grDevices datasets utils methods base other attached packages: [1] rcom_2.1-3 rscproxy_1.3-1 loaded via a namespace (and not attached): [1] tools_2.9.0 ### R 2.8.1 ### > sessionInfo() R version 2.8.1 (2008-12-22) i386-pc-mingw32 locale: LC_COLLATE=English_United Kingdom.1252;LC_CTYPE=English_United Kingdom.1252;LC_MONETARY=English_United Kingdom.1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=English_United Kingdom.1252 attached base packages: [1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base > my computer details are: Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 Manufacturer: Dell Rating: 3.4 Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66 GHz Memory (RAM): 4.00 GB System type: 32-bit Operating System 2009/9/8 Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendi...@gmail.com>: > I am using the exact same version of R as you also on Vista > but can't reproduce your result. For me it splits properly. > > Try starting R like this (modify path if needed) from the > Windows cmd line: > > \Program Files\R\R-2.9.2\bin\Rgui --vanilla > > and then try it. > > On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 11:40 AM, Tony Breyal<tony.bre...@googlemail.com> > wrote: >> Dear all, >> >> I'm having a problem understanding why a split does not occur with in >> the 2nd use of the function strsplit below: >> >> # text strings >>> txt <- c("sales to 23 August 2008 published 29 August", >> + "sales to 6 September 2008 published 11 September") >> >> # first use >>> strsplit(txt, 'published', fixed=TRUE) >> [[1]] >> [1] "sales to 23 August 2008 " " 29 August" >> >> [[2]] >> [1] "sales to 6 September 2008 " " 11 September" >> >> # second use, but with a space ' ' in the split >>> strsplit(txt, 'published ', fixed=TRUE) >> [[1]] >> [1] "sales to 23 August 2008 " "29 August" >> >> [[2]] >> [1] "sales to 6 September 2008 published 11 September" >> >> Thank you kindly for any help in advance. >> Tony >> >> O/S: Win Vista Ultimate >>> sessionInfo() >> R version 2.9.2 (2009-08-24) >> i386-pc-mingw32 >> >> locale: >> LC_COLLATE=English_United Kingdom.1252;LC_CTYPE=English_United Kingdom. >> 1252;LC_MONETARY=English_United Kingdom. >> 1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=English_United Kingdom.1252 >> >> attached base packages: >> [1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods >> base >> >> other attached packages: >> [1] RODBC_1.3-0 >> >> ______________________________________________ >> 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. >> > -- Tony Breyal ______________________________________________ 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.