From jerome@hivnet.ubc.ca  Tue Jul 23 21:23:13 2002
From: jerome@hivnet.ubc.ca (jerome@hivnet.ubc.ca)
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 22:23:13 +0200 (MET DST)
Subject: sub() and gsub() (PR#1826)
Message-ID: <200207232023.WAA09833@pubhealth.ku.dk>

Full_Name: Jerome Asselin
Version: 1.5.1
OS: linux redhat 7.2
Submission from: (NULL) (142.103.173.179)



gsub() return different answers depending on how the input
variables were created. Here is an example of code that
replicates the problem. The vectors y and yy appear to be
the same, but gsub() doesn't return the same answer.
It should remove all the blanks when I use the vector y,
but it doesn't remove them all. I have also tested that
the same problem occurs if sub() is used instead of gsub().

x <- structure(c(1, 3, 4, 5), class = "factor",
     .Label = c("1 ", "2 ", "3 ", "4", "5"))
y <- as.character(x)
y
gsub(" ","",y)

yy <- c("1 ","3 ","4 ","5 ")
yy
gsub(" ","",yy)


Below is the output that I have when I execute those commands.


> x <- structure(c(1, 3, 4, 5), class = "factor",
+      .Label = c("1 ", "2 ", "3 ", "4", "5"))
> y <- as.character(x)
> y
[1] "1 " "3 " "4" "5"
> gsub(" ","",y)
[1] "1"  "3"  "4" "5"
>
> yy <- c("1 ","3 ","4 ","5 ")
> yy
[1] "1 " "3 " "4 " "5 "
> gsub(" ","",yy)
[1] "1" "3" "4" "5"



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sub() and gsub() (PR#1826)
jerome@hivnet.ubc.ca