Hi,
You could try this for multiple intersect: dt[Reduce(function(...) intersect(...), list(grep(par.fund,fund),grep(par.func,func),grep(par.obj,obj))),sum(amount),by=c('code','year')] # code year V1 #1: 1001 2011 123528 #2: 1001 2012 97362 #3: 1002 2011 103811 #4: 1002 2012 97179 dt[intersect(intersect(grep(par.fund, fund), grep(par.func, func)), grep(par.obj, obj)), sum(amount), by=c('code', 'year')] # code year V1 #1: 1001 2011 123528 #2: 1001 2012 97362 #3: 1002 2011 103811 #4: 1002 2012 97179 A.K. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bush, Daniel P. DPI" <daniel.b...@dpi.wi.gov> To: "'r-help@r-project.org'" <r-help@r-project.org> Cc: 'William Dunlap' <wdun...@tibco.com>; "'smartpink...@yahoo.com'" <smartpink...@yahoo.com>; "'djmu...@gmail.com'" <djmu...@gmail.com> Sent: Friday, March 15, 2013 10:06 AM Subject: RE: Grep with wildcards across multiple columns I think the way I set up my sample data without any explanation confused things slightly. These data might make things clearer: # Create fake data df <- data.frame(code = c(rep(1001, 8), rep(1002, 8)), year = rep(c(rep(2011, 4), rep(2012, 4)), 2), fund = rep(c("10E", "27E", "27E", "29E"), 4), func = rep(c("110000", "122000", "214000", "158000"), 4), obj = rep(c("100", "100", "210", "220"), 4), amount = round(rnorm(16, 50000, 10000))) These are financial data with a hierarchical account structure where a zero represents a summary account that rolls up all the accounts at subsequent digits (e.g. 100000 rolls up 110000, 122000, 158000, etc.). I was trying to do two things with the search parameters: turn zeroes into question marks, and duplicate the functionality of a SQL query using those question marks as wildcards: # Set parameters par.fund <- "20E"; par.func <- "100000"; par.obj <- "000" par.fund <- glob2rx(gsub("0", "?", par.fund)) par.func <- glob2rx(gsub("0", "?", par.func)) par.obj <- glob2rx(gsub("0", "?", par.obj)) Fortunately, Bill's suggestion to use the intersect function worked just fine--since intersect accepts only two arguments, I had to nest a pair of statements: # Solution: Use a pair of nested intersects dt2 <- dt[intersect(intersect(grep(par.fund, fund), grep(par.func, func)), grep(par.obj, obj)), sum(amount), by=c('code', 'year')] df2 <- ddply(df[intersect(intersect(grep(par.fund, df$fund), grep(par.func, df$func)), grep(par.obj, df$obj)), ], .(code, year), summarize, amount = sum(amount)) Thanks for your ideas! DB Daniel Bush | School Finance Consultant School Financial Services | Wis. Dept. of Public Instruction daniel.bush -at- dpi.wi.gov | 608-267-9212 -----Original Message----- From: William Dunlap [mailto:wdun...@tibco.com] Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2013 5:49 PM To: Bush, Daniel P. DPI; 'r-help@r-project.org' Subject: RE: Grep with wildcards across multiple columns grep(pattern, textVector) returns of the integer indices of the elements of textVector that match the pattern. E.g., > grep("T", c("One","Two","Three","Four")) [1] 2 3 The '&' operator naturally operates on logical vectors of the same length (If you give it numbers it silently converts 0 to FALSE and other numbers to TRUE.) The two don't fit together. You could use grepl(), which returns a logical vector the length of textVector, as in grepl(p1,v1) & grepl(p2,v2) to figure which entries in the table have v1 matching p1 and v2 matching p2. Or, you could use intersect(grep(p1,v1), grep(p2,v2)) if you want to stick with integer indices. Bill Dunlap Spotfire, TIBCO Software wdunlap tibco.com > -----Original Message----- > From: r-help-boun...@r-project.org > [mailto:r-help-boun...@r-project.org] On Behalf Of Bush, Daniel P. DPI > Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2013 2:43 PM > To: 'r-help@r-project.org' > Subject: [R] Grep with wildcards across multiple columns > > I have a fairly large data set with six variables set up like the following > dummy: > > # Create fake data > df <- data.frame(code = c(rep(1001, 8), rep(1002, 8)), > year = rep(c(rep(2011, 4), rep(2012, 4)), 2), > fund = rep(c("10E", "10E", "10E", "27E"), 4), > func = rep(c("110000", "122000", "214000", "158000"), 4), > obj = rep("100", 16), > amount = round(rnorm(16, 50000, 10000))) > > What I would like to do is sum the amount variable by code and year, > filtering rows using different wildcard searches in each of three > columns: "1?E" in fund, "1??????" in func, and "???" in obj. I'm OK turning > these into regular expressions: > > # Set parameters > par.fund <- "10E"; par.func <- "100000"; par.obj <- "000" > par.fund <- glob2rx(gsub("0", "?", par.fund)) par.func <- > glob2rx(gsub("0", "?", par.func)) par.obj <- glob2rx(gsub("0", "?", > par.obj)) > > The problem occurs when I try to apply multiple greps across columns. > I'd prefer to use data.table since it's so much faster than plyr and I > have 159 different sets of parameters to run through, but I get the same > error setting it up either way: > > # Doesn't work > library(data.table) > dt <- data.table(df) > eval(parse(text=paste( > "dt2 <- dt[", "grep('", par.fund, "', fund) & ", > "grep('", par.func, "', func) & grep('", par.obj, "', obj)", > ", sum(amount), by=c('code', 'year')]" , sep=""))) # Warning > message: > # In grep("^1.E$", fund) & grep("^1.....$", func) : > # longer object length is not a multiple of shorter object length > > # Also doesn't work > library(plyr) > eval(parse(text=paste( > "df2 <- ddply(df[grep('", par.fund, "', df$fund) & ", > "grep('", par.func, "', df$func) & grep('", par.obj, "', df$obj), ]", > ", .(code, year), summarize, amount = sum(amount))" , sep=""))) # > Warning message: > # In grep("^1.E$", df$fund) & grep("^1.....$", df$func) : > # longer object length is not a multiple of shorter object length > > Clearly, the problem is how I'm trying to combine greps in subsetting > rows, but I haven't been able to find a solution that works. Any > thoughts-preferably something that works with data.table? > > DB > > Daniel Bush > School Finance Consultant > School Financial Services > Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction PO Box 7841 | Madison, WI > 53707-7841 daniel.bush -at- dpi.wi.gov | sfs.dpi.wi.gov > Ph: 608-267-9212 | Fax: 608-266-2840 ______________________________________________ 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 and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.