[R] puzzle using gsub (and encodings maybe)

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 10/14/2009 1:30 PM, Adrian Dragulescu wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Below is some output that shows my issue.
> 
> I have a variable x that I read from a file (more on this below)
> 
>> x
> [1] "NEW YORK NEW ENGLAND"
>> gsub(" -", "-", x)            # this does not work!
> [1] "NEW YORK NEW ENGLAND"

It looks as though it worked, presumably because something got lost in 
your email.

Could you post charToRaw(x) so we can see what's in x?

Duncan Murdoch

>> Encoding(x)                   # is x in a special encoding? no
> [1] "unknown"
>> y = "NEW YORK -NEW ENGLAND"   # I type in variable y
>> gsub(" -", "-", y)            # and gsub works as expected
> [1] "NEW YORK-NEW ENGLAND"
>>
> 
> I'm sure the problem has to do with the way I read the variable x.  But even if 
> I change the encoding for x to ASCII, I still cannot do the sub.
> I get x by reading a pdf file with pdftotext so you will not be able to 
> replicate my issue.
> 
> Thanks for any suggestions,
> Adrian
> 
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