[Rd] random output with sub(fixed = TRUE)

[Peter Dalgaard]

"Roger D. Peng" <rpeng at jhsph.edu> writes:

> I've noticed what I think is curious behavior in using 'sub(fixed = TRUE)' and 
> was wondering if my expectation is incorrect.  Here is one example:
> 
> v <- paste(0:10, "asdf", sep = ".")
> sub(".asdf", "", v, fixed = TRUE)
> 
> The results I get are
> 
>  > sub(".asdf", "", v, fixed = TRUE)
>   [1] "0"               "1\0st\0\0"       "2\0<af>\001\0\0" "3\0<af>\001\0\0"
>   [5] "4\0mes\0"        "5\0<ba>\001\0\0" "6\0\0\0\0\0"     "7\0\0\0m\0"
>   [9] "8\0\0\0t\0"      "9\0<fe>\0\0\0"   "10\0\0\0\0\0"
>  >
> 
> I expected "0" in the first entry and everything else would be unchanged.  Your 
> results may vary since every time I run 'sub()' in this way, I get a slightly 
> different answer in entires 2 through 11.
> 
> As it turns out, 'gsub(fixed = TRUE)' gives me the answer I *actually* wanted, 
> which was to replace the string in every entry.  But I still think the behavior 
> of 'sub(fixed = TRUE) is a bit odd.
> 
>  > version
>           _
> platform x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
> arch     x86_64
> os       linux-gnu
> system   x86_64, linux-gnu
> status
> major    2
> minor    2.1
> year     2005
> month    12
> day      20
> svn rev  36812
> language R
>  >

Argh... 

year     2005
month    12
day      21

and something like this gets discovered. It's a ritual, I tell ya, a ritual!

If you look at the output and terminate all strings at the embedded
\0, it looks much more sensible, so it should be fairly easy to spot
the cause of this bug...

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Øster Farimagsgade 5, Entr.B
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     PO Box 2099, 1014 Cph. K
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark          Ph:  (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)                  FAX: (+45) 35327907