[R] match first consecutive list of capitalized words in string

[Peter Alspach]

Tena koe Jonas

Something like the following may help, although you should probably read the help on regexpr regarding locales.

Names <- c("filia Maria", "vidua Joh Dirck Kleve (oo 02.02.1732)", "Bernardus Engelb Franciscus Linde j.u.Doktor referendarius sereniss Judex et gograven Rheinensis")
Names1 <- sub('^[0-9a-z]* ', '', Names)
Names1
ttReg <- regexpr(' [^A-Z]', Names1)
ifelse (ttReg>0, substring(Names1, 1, regexpr(' [^A-Z]', Names1)-1), Names1)

Incidentally, it is not good practice to call your objects 'names' since that is a function in R.

HTH ....

Peter Alspach

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-
> project.org] On Behalf Of Richter-Dumke, Jonas
> Sent: Wednesday, 9 November 2011 1:49 a.m.
> To: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: [R] match first consecutive list of capitalized words in
> string
> 
> Dear R-Helpers,
> 
> this is my first post ever to a mailing list, so please feel free to
> point out any missunderstandings on my side regarding the conventions
> of this mailing list.
> 
> My problem:
> 
> Assuming the following character vector is given:
> 
> names <- c("filia Maria", "vidua Joh Dirck Kleve (oo 02.02.1732)",
> "Bernardus Engelb Franciscus Linde j.u.Doktor referendarius sereniss
> Judex et gograven Rheinensis")
> 
> Is there a regular expression matching the first consecutive list of
> capitalized words in a single characterstring ("Maria", "Joh Dirck
> Kleve", "Bernardus Engelb Franciscus Linde")?
> This expression would very reliably seperate the person names from the
> additional information in my historic church register transcription.
> 
> Thank you very much for your effort,
> 
> Jonas
> 
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> 
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> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

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