My mistake: "\\1" is a backreference - see replacement argument in ?gsub.
This work: gsub("(.*) MIMA.*", "\\1", desc) On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 2:00 PM, Juliet Hannah <juliet.han...@gmail.com>wrote: > What is the meaning of "\\1" here? Thanks. > > desc <- c("hsa-let-7a MIMAT0000062 Homo sapiens let-7a","hsa-let-7a* > MIMAT0004481 Homo sapiens let-7a*","hsa-let-7a-2* MIMAT0010195 Homo > sapiens let-7a-2*") > > I'm missing something: > > > gsub(" MIMA.*", "\\1", desc) > [1] "hsa-let-7a" "hsa-let-7a*" "hsa-let-7a-2*" > > gsub(" MIMA.*", "\\2", desc) > [1] "hsa-let-7a" "hsa-let-7a*" "hsa-let-7a-2*" > > gsub(" MIMA.*", "\\3", desc) > [1] "hsa-let-7a" "hsa-let-7a*" "hsa-let-7a-2*" > > On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 10:58 AM, Henrique Dallazuanna <www...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > Try this: > > > > gsub(" MIMA.*", "\\1", desc) > > > > On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 11:37 AM, <mau...@alice.it> wrote: > > > >> I have the following vector of strings (shown only the first 3 elements) > >> > >> > desc[1:3] > >> [1] "hsa-let-7a MIMAT0000062 Homo sapiens let-7a" > >> [2] "hsa-let-7a* MIMAT0004481 Homo sapiens let-7a*" > >> [3] "hsa-let-7a-2* MIMAT0010195 Homo sapiens let-7a-2*" > >> > is.vector(desc) > >> [1] TRUE > >> > A <- unlist(strsplit(desc[1:3], " ")) > >> > A > >> [1] "hsa-let-7a MIMAT0000062 Homo sapiens let-7a" > >> [2] "hsa-let-7a* MIMAT0004481 Homo sapiens let-7a*" > >> [3] "hsa-let-7a-2* MIMAT0010195 Homo sapiens let-7a-2*" > >> > as.vector(A) > >> [1] "hsa-let-7a MIMAT0000062 Homo sapiens let-7a" > >> [2] "hsa-let-7a* MIMAT0004481 Homo sapiens let-7a*" > >> [3] "hsa-let-7a-2* MIMAT0010195 Homo sapiens let-7a-2*" > >> > > >> I would like to extract only the first field (of variable length). That > is > >> I need a vector containing > >> "hsa-let-7a " > >> "hsa-let-7a*" > >> "hsa-let-7a-2*" > >> > >> The operator [[]][] works only on the single vector element. I would > like > >> to extract the 1st field > >> with one single instruction rather than a loop as traditional > programming > >> languages request. > >> > >> Thank you in advance for you help. > >> Maura > >> > >> > >> > >> tutti i telefonini TIM! > >> > >> > >> [[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. > >> > > > > > > > > -- > > Henrique Dallazuanna > > Curitiba-Paraná-Brasil > > 25° 25' 40" S 49° 16' 22" O > > > > [[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. > > > > > -- Henrique Dallazuanna Curitiba-Paraná-Brasil 25° 25' 40" S 49° 16' 22" O [[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.