rregexgsub

How to match a single character in a string? How to add characters before and after matched string using R?

I have a list of random strings like kzyFw4hw8EOC/655.

I want to look for / character in a string and when there is a match add a " character before and after the character /

Something like this:

Before = 'kzyFw4hw8EOC/655'
After = 'kzyFw4hw8EOC"/"655'

I have tried:

gsub(pattern = "/",replacement = ""/"",x = Before)

getting Error in ""/"" : non-numeric argument to binary operator.

Solution

  • I modified the code to include the strings in single quotes. (R requires single or double quotes for strings. I used single quotes so as not to have to escape the double quotes.)

    Before <- 'kzyFw4hw8EOC/655'
After <- 'kzyFw4hw8EOC"/"655'

    Using base R:

    gsub.method <- gsub('/', '"/"', Before)
gsub.method == After
# [1] TRUE

    or using the package stringr from the tidydverse: 

    library(stringr)
stringr.method <- str_replace(Before, '/', '"/"')
stringr.method == After
# [1] TRUE