calpeda wrote: > thank you, > but I m importing data from a txt file and I have a matrix of n*1 > The function str seems to work only from 1*n > >
you see, it would help if you provided more details from the start. you may still need to do it; it seems that both solutions you were given (mine and the substr one) work for both n*1 and 1*n matrices: # 5*1 (strings = matrix(as.character(sample(10^6, 5)), ncol=1)) substr(strings, 1, 4) substr(t(strings), 1, 4) with a fixed pattern of four digits from the beginning of the string, the substr solution is better -- simpler and a few times faster. vQ ______________________________________________ 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.