Simple regex problem

[John Kane-2]

I am cleaning up some character data to convert to
dates using chron. The regex that I am using work fine
but there should be a better way to do this. Can
anyone suggest a cleaner bit of code than the gsub,
sub approach? Thanks

#Test Run on dates.
xx <- c("May  1, 2007",
"May  2, 2007",
"May  3, 2007",
"May  4, 2007",
"May  5, 2007",
"May  6, 2007",
"May  7, 2007",
"May  8, 2007",
"May  9, 2007",
"May 10, 2007",
"May 11, 2007",
"May 12, 2007")
yy <- gsub(" +", "/", xx) ; yy
zz <- sub(",", "", yy) ; zz
library(chron)
ttdates <- chron(zz, format = c(dates = "mon/d/y"))

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[Ted.Harding-2]

On 10-May-08 16:49:20, John Kane wrote:

> I am cleaning up some character data to convert to
> dates using chron. The regex that I am using work fine
> but there should be a better way to do this. Can
> anyone suggest a cleaner bit of code than the gsub,
> sub approach? Thanks
>
>#Test Run on dates.
> xx <- c("May  1, 2007",
> "May  2, 2007",
> "May  3, 2007",
> "May  4, 2007",
> "May  5, 2007",
> "May  6, 2007",
> "May  7, 2007",
> "May  8, 2007",
> "May  9, 2007",
> "May 10, 2007",
> "May 11, 2007",
> "May 12, 2007")
> yy <- gsub(" +", "/", xx) ; yy
> zz <- sub(",", "", yy) ; zz

You can do it in one stroke with
gsub(",*[ ]+", "/", xx)
 [1] "May/1/2007"  "May/2/2007"  "May/3/2007"  "May/4/2007"
 [5] "May/5/2007"  "May/6/2007"  "May/7/2007"  "May/8/2007"
 [9] "May/9/2007"  "May/10/2007" "May/11/2007" "May/12/2007"

> library(chron)
> ttdates <- chron(zz, format = c(dates = "mon/d/y"))

Best wishes,
Ted

--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding@...>
Fax-to-email: [phone]
Date: 10-May-08                                       Time: 18:14:33
------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
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[Gabor Grothendieck]

Try this (no gsub required):

as.chron(as.Date(xx, "%b %d, %Y"))

On Sat, May 10, 2008 at 12:49 PM, John Kane <jrkrideau@...> wrote:

> I am cleaning up some character data to convert to
> dates using chron. The regex that I am using work fine
> but there should be a better way to do this. Can
> anyone suggest a cleaner bit of code than the gsub,
> sub approach? Thanks
>
> #Test Run on dates.
> xx <- c("May  1, 2007",
> "May  2, 2007",
> "May  3, 2007",
> "May  4, 2007",
> "May  5, 2007",
> "May  6, 2007",
> "May  7, 2007",
> "May  8, 2007",
> "May  9, 2007",
> "May 10, 2007",
> "May 11, 2007",
> "May 12, 2007")
> yy <- gsub(" +", "/", xx) ; yy
> zz <- sub(",", "", yy) ; zz
> library(chron)
> ttdates <- chron(zz, format = c(dates = "mon/d/y"))
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help@... 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@... 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.

[John Kane-2]

Thanks to Gabor Grothendieck  & Ted Harding.  both
solutions work very nicely.  



--- Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendieck@...>
wrote:

> Try this (no gsub required):
>
> as.chron(as.Date(xx, "%b %d, %Y"))
>
> On Sat, May 10, 2008 at 12:49 PM, John Kane
> <jrkrideau@...> wrote:
> > I am cleaning up some character data to convert to
> > dates using chron. The regex that I am using work
> fine
> > but there should be a better way to do this. Can
> > anyone suggest a cleaner bit of code than the
> gsub,
> > sub approach? Thanks
> >
> > #Test Run on dates.
> > xx <- c("May  1, 2007",
> > "May  2, 2007",
> > "May  3, 2007",
> > "May  4, 2007",
> > "May  5, 2007",
> > "May  6, 2007",
> > "May  7, 2007",
> > "May  8, 2007",
> > "May  9, 2007",
> > "May 10, 2007",
> > "May 11, 2007",
> > "May 12, 2007")
> > yy <- gsub(" +", "/", xx) ; yy
> > zz <- sub(",", "", yy) ; zz
> > library(chron)
> > ttdates <- chron(zz, format = c(dates =
> "mon/d/y"))
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-help@... 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.
> >
>

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______________________________________________
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PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
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