I made different assumptions than Josh.

xf<-c("W",NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA)
xg<-c(NA,"k","h",NA,"g","r","j",NA,"v","d",NA,"v",NA,"z","r","r","i")
xf
xg
unlist(apply(cbind(xf,xg), 1, function(x) x[!is.na(x)]))
as.vector(unlist(apply(cbind(xf,xg), 1, function(x) x[!is.na(x)])))

> unlist(apply(cbind(xf,xg), 1, function(x) x[!is.na(x)]))
 xf  xg  xg  xg  xg  xg  xg  xg  xg  xg  xg  xg  xg
"W" "k" "h" "g" "r" "j" "v" "d" "v" "z" "r" "r" "i"
> as.vector(unlist(apply(cbind(xf,xg), 1, function(x) x[!is.na(x)])))
 [1] "W" "k" "h" "g" "r" "j" "v" "d" "v" "z" "r" "r" "i"
>
On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 9:59 PM, Erin Hodgess <erinm.hodgess@gmail.com>wrote:

> Dear R People:
>
> Suppose I have the following two character vectors:
>
>  xf
>  [1] "W" NA  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA  NA
> > xg
>  [1] NA  "k" "h" NA  "g" "r" "j" NA  "v" "d" NA  "v" NA  "z" "r" "r" "i"
> >
>
> I want to end up with
>
> "W" "k" "h" ...
>
> What is the best way to achieve this, please?  I was thinking that if
> there is an exclusive "or" that it might work.  I've tried all kinds
> of ifs, and ifelse, to no avail.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Erin
>
>
> --
> Erin Hodgess
> Associate Professor
> Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences
> University of Houston - Downtown
> mailto: erinm.hodgess@gmail.com
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help@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<http://www.r-project.org/posting-guide.html>
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

