[R] converting a string to a vector without using strsplit and unlink?

[Tancred Frickey]

Many thanks. That does it

Gabor Grothendieck wrote:

>Try this:
>
>x <- "c(1,2)"
>eval(parse(text = x))
>
>or
>
>x <- sub("\\{(.*)\\}", "c(\\1)", "{1,2,3,4,5}")
>eval(parse(text = x))
>
>or
>
>scan(textConnection(gsub("[{}]", "", "{1,2,3,4,5}")), sep = ",")
>
>On 3/21/06, Tancred Frickey <tancred.frickey at rsbs.anu.edu.au> wrote:
>  
>
>>Hi
>>
>>I am importing some data from a postgres database and one of the fields
>>contains an array of values. This field is in the form "{1,2,3,4,5}" and
>>is imported as a character string into "R".  I am able to convert the
>>string into a vector of numerics using the strsplit and unlist
>>functions, but I find that a very inelegant (and slow) solution.
>>As an alternative I have coaxed the database into exporting the data in
>>the form "c(1,2,3,4,5)" and importing that into R. Unfortunately this is
>>also interpreted as one long character string instead of a vector
>>containing values. If I edit the corresponding fields in the table with
>>the "edit" command and remove the quotes at the beginning and end of the
>>line, the data is recognized as a vector of numerics.
>>
>>Question: Is there any direct or easy way of converting a string
>>"c(1,2,3,4,5)" into a vector of values without going through
>>strsplit&unlist and/or is there a way to import arrays from postgres
>>directly as arrays or vectors and not strings (and thereby avoid all the
>>trouble in the first place).
>>
>>
>>Best wishes
>>
>>Tancred
>>
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>>    
>>