thanks stephan.  i'd been trying to make gsub work, but couldnt make it
replace the whole expression.  so i'd resorted to trying to loop with grep -
but with two problems.   firstly, i cant seem to make the loop 'remember'
the substitutions it makes (see below).  secondly, it feels like this is a
really inefficient way of doing something quite simple anyhow.

colours <- as.character(paste(letters,colours(),"stuff",LETTERS))
target <- c("red","blue","green","gray")
new.colour <-colours
for (i in length(target)) {
    x <- target[i]
    new.colour[grep((x),new.colour)] <- x
    return(new.colour)
    }




On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 9:45 AM, Stephan Kolassa <Stephan.Kolassa@gmx.de>wrote:

> Hi Simeon,
>
> ?gsub
>
> HTH,
> Stephan
>
> simeon duckworth schrieb:
>
>> I am trying to simplify a text variable by matching and replacing it with
>> a
>> string in another vector
>>
>> so for example in
>> colours <- paste(letters,colours(),"stuff",LETTERS)
>>
>> find and replace with ("red","blue","green","gray","yellow","other")  -
>> irrespective of case
>>
>> its a large dataset, so i'd like to be able to do this as efficiently as
>> possible.
>>
>> thanks for any help
>>
>>        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
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>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>>
>

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