Thanks to Richard, Gabor and Marc for some nice solutions to my request. I have a new problem:
> xify(30.10) [1] "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.X" > xify(30.11) [1] "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXXXX" The problem originates from: > as.numeric(unlist(strsplit(as.character(15.10), "\\."))) [1] 15 1 > as.numeric(unlist(strsplit(as.character(15.11), "\\."))) [1] 15 11 It seems to boils down to: > as.character(15.10) [1] "15.1" A simple solution is: > xify("15.10") [1] "XXXXX.XXXXXXXXXX" I was wondering if there is a simple way for xify to see the zero of the 10 without having to force the user to add quotes around the format? Thanks, Saghir -----Original Message----- From: Marc Schwartz (via MN) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 16:55 To: Bashir Saghir (Aztek Global) Cc: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: Re: [R] String manipulation and formatting <snip> Here are two variations: xify <- function(x) { exxes <- as.numeric(unlist(strsplit(as.character(x), "\\."))) ifelse(length(exxes) == 2, paste(paste(rep("X", exxes[1] - exxes[2]), collapse = ""), paste(rep("X", exxes[2]), collapse = ""), sep = "."), paste(rep("X", exxes[1]), collapse = "")) } xify <- function(x) { exxes <- as.numeric(unlist(strsplit(as.character(x), "\\."))) tmp <- sapply(exxes, function(x) paste(rep("X", x), collapse = "")) ifelse(length(tmp) == 2, paste(substr(tmp[1], 1, exxes[1] - exxes[2]), tmp[2], sep = "."), tmp) } HTH, Marc Schwartz -----Original Message----- From: Richard M. Heiberger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 16:42 To: Bashir Saghir (Aztek Global); '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: Re: [R] String manipulation and formatting xify <- function(number) { fn <- format(number) fn3 <- unlist(strsplit(fn, "\\.")) if (length(fn3) == 1) paste(rep("X", as.numeric(fn3)), collapse="") else paste(paste(rep("X", as.numeric(fn3)[1]-as.numeric(fn3)[2]), collapse=""), paste(rep("X", as.numeric(fn3)[2]), collapse=""), sep=".") } --------------------------------------------------------- Legal Notice: This electronic mail and its attachments are i...{{dropped}} ______________________________________________ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list 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.