[R] splitting a string by space except when contained within quotes

[William Dunlap]

Try using scan(quote='"', ...), as in the following
  > str <- 'rainfall snowfall "Channel storage" "Rivulet storage"'
  > scan(text=str, what="", quote='"', quiet=TRUE)
  [1] "rainfall"        "snowfall"        "Channel storage" "Rivulet storage"

Bill Dunlap
Spotfire, TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf
> Of downtowater
> Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 6:44 AM
> To: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: [R] splitting a string by space except when contained within quotes
> 
> I've been trying to split a space delimited string with double-quotes in R
> for some time but without success. An example of a string is as follows:
> 
> /rainfall snowfall "Channel storage" "Rivulet storage"/
> 
> It's important for us because these are column headings that must match the
> subsequent data.
> 
> Here is some code I've been trying:
> 
> str <- 'rainfall snowfall "Channel storage" "Rivulet storage"'
> regex <- "[^\\s\"']+|\"([^\"]*)\""
> split <- strsplit(str, regex, perl=T)
> what I would like is
> 
> [1] "rainfall" "snowfall" "Channel storage" "Rivulet storage"
> 
> but what I get is:
> 
> [1] ""  " " " " " "
> 
> The vector is the right length (which is encouraging) but of course the
> strings are empty or contain a single space. Any suggestions?
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
> 
> 
> --
> View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/splitting-a-string-by-
> space-except-when-contained-within-quotes-tp4651286.html
> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at 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.