I think I would replace all , with . and subsequently replace all first . with , using ^\\.
x <- gsub(",", ".", x) gsub("^\\.", ",", x) It's not so elegant, but it is easier to understand than backreferences and complex regex. Best, Ulrik On Tue, 13 Feb 2018, 03:38 Boris Steipe, <boris.ste...@utoronto.ca> wrote: > You can either use positive lookahead/lookbehind - but support for that is > a bit flaky. Or write a proper regex, and use > backreferences to keep what you need. > > R > x <- "abc 1,1 ,1 1, x,y 2,3 " > > R > gsub("(\\d),(\\d)", "\\1.\\2", x, perl = TRUE) > [1] "abc 1.1 ,1 1, x,y 2.3 " > > > B. > > > > > On Feb 12, 2018, at 9:34 PM, Jim Lemon <drjimle...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Hi Dennis, > > How about: > > > > > > # define the two values to search for > > x<-2 > > y<-3 > > # create your search string and replacement string > > repstring<-paste(x,y,sep=",") > > newstring<-paste(x,y,sep=".") > > # this is the string that you want to change > > thetastring<-"SIGMA(2,3)" > > sub(repstring,newstring,thetastring) > > [1] "SIGMA(2.3)" > > > > Use gsub if you want to change multiple values > > > > Jim > > > > On Tue, Feb 13, 2018 at 1:22 PM, Dennis Fisher <fis...@plessthan.com> > wrote: > >> R 3.4.2 > >> OS X > >> > >> Colleagues > >> > >> I would appreciate some help with regular expressions. > >> > >> I have string that looks like: > >> " ITERATION ,THETA1 ,THETA2 > ,THETA3 ,THETA4 ,THETA5 > ,THETA6 ,THETA7 ,SIGMA(1,1) > ,SIGMA(2,1) ,SIGMA(2,2)” > >> > >> In the entries that contain: > >> (X,Y) # for example, SIGMA(1,1) > >> I would like to replace the comma with a period, e.g., SIGMA(1.1) but > NOT the other commas > >> > >> The end-result would be: > >> " ITERATION ,THETA1 ,THETA2 > ,THETA3 ,THETA4 ,THETA5 > ,THETA6 ,THETA7 ,SIGMA(1.1) > ,SIGMA(2.1) ,SIGMA(2.2)” > >> > >> Can someone provide the regular expression code to accomplish this? > >> Thanks. > >> > >> Dennis > >> > >> Dennis Fisher MD > >> P < (The "P Less Than" Company) > >> Phone / Fax: 1-866-PLessThan (1-866-753-7784) > >> www.PLessThan.com > >> > >> ______________________________________________ > >> R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > >> 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. > > > > ______________________________________________ > > R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > > 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. > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > 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. > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see 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.