Substituting braces {} with quotes "

Question

I want to replace braces {} with quotes ". I tried the following code, the problem is that the \ appaers in the string and I can not delete it.

Code used:

makebib <- function(string){
   # replace { by "
   string <- gsub("\\{",'"',string)

   # replace } by "
   string <- gsub("\\}",'"',string)

   # delete \
   string <- gsub("\\","",string,fixed = TRUE)

   return(string)
}

test <- "bla{bla}"
makebib(test)

[1] "bla\"bla\""

How can I manage that the \ does not appears or delete it?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 20 '18 at 17:20

Your function works. The \ isn't really there.

Consider the following:

test <- "bla{bla}"
makebib(test)
# [1] "bla\"bla\""

cat(makebib(test))
# bla"bla"

nchar(makebib(test))
# [1] 8

By the way, your function could also be simplified:

makebib <- function(string) gsub("[{}]", "\"", string)

Substituting braces {} with quotes "

1 Answers1