I made different assumptions than Josh. xf<-c("W",NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA) xg<-c(NA,"k","h",NA,"g","r","j",NA,"v","d",NA,"v",NA,"z","r","r","i") xf xg unlist(apply(cbind(xf,xg), 1, function(x) x[!is.na(x)])) as.vector(unlist(apply(cbind(xf,xg), 1, function(x) x[!is.na(x)])))
> unlist(apply(cbind(xf,xg), 1, function(x) x[!is.na(x)])) xf xg xg xg xg xg xg xg xg xg xg xg xg "W" "k" "h" "g" "r" "j" "v" "d" "v" "z" "r" "r" "i" > as.vector(unlist(apply(cbind(xf,xg), 1, function(x) x[!is.na(x)]))) [1] "W" "k" "h" "g" "r" "j" "v" "d" "v" "z" "r" "r" "i" > On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 9:59 PM, Erin Hodgess <erinm.hodg...@gmail.com>wrote: > Dear R People: > > Suppose I have the following two character vectors: > > xf > [1] "W" NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA > > xg > [1] NA "k" "h" NA "g" "r" "j" NA "v" "d" NA "v" NA "z" "r" "r" "i" > > > > I want to end up with > > "W" "k" "h" ... > > What is the best way to achieve this, please? I was thinking that if > there is an exclusive "or" that it might work. I've tried all kinds > of ifs, and ifelse, to no avail. > > > Thanks, > Erin > > > -- > Erin Hodgess > Associate Professor > Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences > University of Houston - Downtown > mailto: erinm.hodg...@gmail.com > > ______________________________________________ > 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<http://www.r-project.org/posting-guide.html> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ 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.