Replace Specific Characters in String in R

Last Updated : 23 Sep, 2021

In this article, we will discuss how to replace specific characters in a string in R Programming Language.

Method 1: Using gsub() function

We can replace all occurrences of a particular character using gsub() function.

Syntax: gsub(character,new_character, string)

Parameters:

string is the input string

character is the character present in the string to be replaced

new_character is the new character to be placed in the place in the existing character

Example: R program to replace character in a string using gsub() function

R

# consider a string "Hello Geek" 
# replace the character 'e' in  "Hello  
# Geek" with "E" 
print(gsub("e", "E", "Hello Geek") ) 
  
# consider a string "Python and java" 
# replace the character 'a' in  "Python  
# and java" with "M" 
print(gsub("a", "M", "Python and java") ) 

Output:

[1] "HEllo GEEk"
[1] "Python Mnd jMvM"

Method 2: Using sub() function

We can replace only the first occurrence of a particular character using sub() function, it will replace only the first occurrence character in the string

Syntax: sub(character,new_character, string)

Parameters:

string is the input string

character is the character present in the string to be replaced

new_character is the new character to be placed in the place in the existing character

Example: R program to replace character in a string using sub() function

R

# consider a string "Hello Geek" 
# replace the character 'e' in  "Hello Geek"  
# with "E" 
print(sub("e", "E", "Hello Geek") ) 
  
# consider a string "Python and java" 
# replace the character 'a' in  "Python and java" 
# with "M" 
print(sub("a", "M", "Python and java") ) 

Output:

[1] "HEllo Geek"
[1] "Python Mnd java"

Method 3: Using str_replace_all() function

str_replace_all() is also a function that replaces the character with a particular character in a string. It will replace all occurrences of the character. It is available in stringr package. So, we need to install and load the package

install: install.packages("stringr")
load: library("stringr")

Syntax: str_replace_all(string, “character”, “new_character”)

Parameters:

string is the input string

character is the character present in the string to be replaced

new_character is the new character to be placed in the place in the existing character

Example: R program to replace character in a string using str_replace_all() function

R

# load the stringr package 
library("stringr") 
  
# consider a string "Hello Geek" 
# replace the character 'e' in  "Hello Geek"  
# with "E" 
print(str_replace_all( "Hello Geek","e", "E") ) 
  
# consider a string "Python and java" 
# replace the character 'a' in  "Python and java" 
# with "M" 
print(str_replace_all("Python and java","a", "M") ) 

Output:

[1] "HEllo GEEk"
[1] "Python Mnd jMvM"

Method 4: Using str_replace() function

str_replace() is also a function that replaces the character with a particular character in a string. It will replace only the first occurrence.

Syntax: str_replace(string, “character”, “new_character”)

Parameters:

string is the input string

character is the character present in the string to be replaced

new_character is the new character to be placed in the place in the existing character

Example: R program to replace character in a string using str_replace() function

R

# load the stringr package 
library("stringr") 
  
# consider a string "Hello Geek" 
# replace the character 'e' in  "Hello Geek"  
# with "E" 
print(str_replace( "Hello Geek","e", "E") ) 
  
# consider a string "Python and java" 
# replace the character 'a' in  "Python and java" 
# with "M" 
print(str_replace("Python and java","a", "M") ) 

Output:

[1] "HEllo Geek"
[1] "Python Mnd java"

Replace specific values in column using regex in R

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Article Tags :

Replace Specific Characters in String in R

Method 1: Using gsub() function

R

Method 2: Using sub() function

R

Method 3: Using str_replace_all() function

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Method 4: Using str_replace() function

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