Insert a space in a string containing alphanumeric characters at the beginning and end of each number in R

Question

I have a string similar to 98abcd123fgh324ijklm564asd. I want to insert a couple of spaces before and after each number in the string. Below is the sample output:

str = "98abcd123fgh324ijklm564asd"

required_function(str)
# " 98 abcd 123 fgh 324 ijklm 564 asd"

That sounds like a task for us, what have you tried and what problem you have with that code/regex? — Wiktor Stribiżew, Apr 01 '16 at 10:42
@WiktorStribiżew I dont understand regexes very well. Instead, I created two columns. Column1 with all the alphabets replacing the digits with space and Column2 with all the numbers, replacing the alphabets with space. That suffices the requirement. I was thinking if this could be done with regex in more efficient way. — Oshan, Apr 01 '16 at 10:47
You see, it is *basic* regex: `gsub("(\\d+)", " \\1 ", str)`. Really, I think you need to read [Learning Regular Expressions](http://stackoverflow.com/a/2759417/3832970). — Wiktor Stribiżew, Apr 01 '16 at 10:48

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 01 '16 at 10:49

2

str = "98abcd123fgh324ijklm564asd"
gsub("(\\d+)", " \\1 ", str)

answered Apr 01 '16 at 10:49

rock321987

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Come on. That is too basic. No wonder I cannot find another question like this on SO to close the question with. – Wiktor Stribiżew Apr 01 '16 at 10:50
@WiktorStribiżew agree but that's an answer though – rock321987 Apr 01 '16 at 10:50
@rock321987 thanks a ton.. – Oshan Apr 01 '16 at 11:24

Insert a space in a string containing alphanumeric characters at the beginning and end of each number in R

1 Answers1