CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regexrparsing
ModalBro
ModalBro

Reputation: 554

String parsing with ifelse command

I have a problem parsing a series of names into first and last names. Given a list of names that looks like this:

names <- as.vector(c("Rep. Mike Grimm","House Committee on Energy and Commerce",
                 "Office of the Inspector General","Rep. J. Gresham Barrett","Rep. Mary Fallin"))

How would I write a regex code for sub to extract the first and last names only of the names in the list that start with "Rep."? Thus, I think I need to write a regex code that only extracts the 2nd word from names starting with "Rep." and only the 3rd word for another column, as I want to create one column for first names and another for last names. I have tried a number of regex codes, but can't find one that works. Thank you all for your help!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 43

Answers (2)

Pierre L
Pierre L

Reputation: 28441

ans <- gsub('Rep. ', '', names[grep('Rep. ', names)])
First <- gsub('\\s\\w+$', '', ans)
Last <- gsub('.*?(\\w+$)', '\\1', ans)
df <- data.frame(First, Last)
df
#       First    Last
#1       Mike   Grimm
#2 J. Gresham Barrett
#3       Mary  Fallin

Upvotes: 1

Andrelrms
Andrelrms

Reputation: 819

is this what you had in mind? I wouldn't name the object as "names" because you will mask the function "names"

names.of <- as.vector(c("Rep. Mike Grimm","House Committee on Energy and Commerce",
                  "Office of the Inspector General","Rep. J. Gresham Barrett","Rep. Mary Fallin"))
names.rep<-grep("Rep",names.of,value=T )
gsub("Rep\\. ([A-Za-z]+)","\\1",names.rep)

Upvotes: 1

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