hi I ve a list of item x = ( "xxxxx1" "xxxxx2" "yyyyx3") I need to extract a new vector y = ( "xxxx", "xxxx", "yyyy" ) I mean, for each item I need to extract the first 4 digit How is that possible? Thank you -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/list-substring-tp22826435p22826435.html Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.