[R] Confusing behavior when using gsub to insert unicode character (minimal working example provided)

[Thomas Stewart]

Can anyone help me understand the following behavior?

I want to replace the letter 'X' in
​the string ​
'text X' with '≥' (\u226
​5
).  The output from gsub is not what I expect.  It gives: "text ≥".

Now, suppose I want to replace the character '≤' in
​ the string​
'text ≤' with '≥'.  Then, gsub gives the expected, desired output.

​What am I missing?

Thanks for any insight.
-tgs

Minimal Working Example:

string1 <- "text X"; string1
new_string1 <- gsub("X","\u2265",string1); new_string1

string2 <- "text \u2264"; string2
new_string2 <- gsub("\u2264","\u2265",string2); new_string2

charToRaw(new_string1)
charToRaw(new_string2)

sessionInfo()

## OUTPUT

> string1 <- "text X"; string1
[1] "text X"

> new_string1 <- gsub("X","\u2265",string1); new_string1
[1] "text ≥"

> string2 <- "text \u2264"; string2
[1] "text ≤"

> new_string2 <- gsub("\u2264","\u2265",string2); new_string2
[1] "text ≥"

> charToRaw(new_string1)
[1] 74 65 78 74 20 e2 89 a5

> charToRaw(new_string2)
[1] 74 65 78 74 20 e2 89 a5

> sessionInfo()
R version 3.0.2 (2013-09-25)
Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)

locale:
[1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252  LC_CTYPE=English_United
States.1252    LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252
[4] LC_NUMERIC=C                           LC_TIME=English_United
States.1252

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] tools_3.0.2

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