str_locate & str_locate_all Functions in R (2 Examples)
In this R tutorial you’ll learn how to use str_locate and str_locate_all to locate the position of patterns in a character string.
Table of contents:
- Example Data
- Example 1: Application of str_locate Function in R
- Example 2: Application of str_locate_all Function in R
- Video & Further Resources
With that, here’s the step-by-step process.
Example Data
As a first step, we have to create an exemplifying character string in R:
x <- c("my example string") # Create character string
In addition, we have to install and load the stringr package of the tidyverse to R:
install.packages("stringr") # Install stringr package library("stringr") # Load stringr package
Example 1: Application of str_locate Function in R
In Example 1, I’ll show you how to apply the str_locate function. Have a look at the following R code:
str_locate(x, "mple") # Apply str_locate function # start end # [1,] 7 10
As you can see, the str_locate command returns a matrix containing a starting and an ending value. In this example, the pattern “mple” begins at the 7th character and ends at the 10th character of our string.
Example 2: Application of str_locate_all Function in R
The str_locate function, which I have explained in Example 1, returns only the first occurrence of a certain pattern. If we want to extract all locations of such a pattern, we need to use the str_locate_all function:
str_locate_all(x, "m") # Apply str_locate_all function # [[1]] # start end # [1,] 1 1 # [2,] 7 7
As you can see based on the previous output, the letter “m” occurs at the first and at the 7th position of our character string.
Video & Further Resources
Have a look at the following video tutorial of my YouTube channel. I’m explaining the R programming syntax of this tutorial in the video:
The YouTube video will be added soon.
Furthermore, you may read the other tutorials on https://statisticsglobe.com/:
To summarize: This article explained how to identify the positioning of certain characters in a string in R. In case you have any additional questions and/or comments, please tell me about it in the comments. Furthermore, please subscribe to my email newsletter in order to get updates on the newest articles.
Statistics Globe Newsletter