Although others may be better able to decipher your messed up html
post than I, you are more likely to get a helpful response if you
**follow the posting guide** and post in plain text only, using
?dput() to input example data in a form that makes it easy for R
helpers to input your data, scrutinize, and respond.
Possibly useful comment: did you double escape the "|" symbol in your
gsub() call? ("|" must be escaped with a "\" ; but the "\" must be
escaped by a "\" for R to interpret as as a "\" instead of the first
part of an escape code such as e.g. "\t" for tab). Example:
> gsub("[[:blank:]]+","\\|","a b")
[1] "a|b"
Cheers,
Bert
Bert Gunter
"The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along
and sticking things into it."
-- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip )
On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 4:38 PM, Steven Kang <stochastick...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi R users,
>
> I would like to convert a string into a data frame by creating a separator
> (ie pipe) between each potential fields (then using *read.table* function).
>
> ie. Here is the dummy input data for illustration
> (4 x 5)
>
> Date Type Description
> In Out Net
>
> 1/1/2016 Share Share margin 1234
> 600 100 500
>
> 1/1/2016 Bond Govnt LTM
> 0
>
> 3/1/2016 JPY RTOP123
> 500 500
>
> 5/1/2016 Cash Margin C123
> 50 -500
>
> The following *dat* object was read from PDF file and stored as a string
> (which requires to be converted to data frame)
>
>
>> *dat*
>
> [1] “1/01/2016” Share Share margin
> 1234 600 100 500”
>
> [2] “1/01/2016” Bond Govt LTM
> 0”
>
> [3] “3/01/2016” JPY appre RTOP124
> 500 500”
>
> [4] “5/01/2016” Cash Margin
> call 50 -50”
>
>
>> *class(dat)*
>
> [1] “character”
>
> Are there any effective ways (ie functions) to insert a pipe as a separator
> between the fields (including the empty field) like the following desired
> outcome?
>
> [1] “1/01/2016” | Share|Share margin 1234 |600 | 100 | 500”
>
> [2] “1/01/2016” | Bond |Govt LTM |||0”
>
> [3] “3/01/2016” | |JPY appre RTOP124 |500 ||500”
>
> [4] “5/01/2016” | Cash |Margin call ||50 |-50”
>
> I was trying *gsub *function to insert a pipe between the fields and
> everything appeared to be fine except when the pipe wasn’t inserted as
> intended for the empty fields (ie as there are 5 fields, there should be 5
> pipes, but this isn’t the case for records with empty field).
>
> Any suggestion would be much appreciated.
>
>
> Thanks.
>
> Steven
>
> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
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> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
______________________________________________
R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
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PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
