R strsplit() function - Split strings
The R strsplit() function is used to split a string into multiple parts by a specified delimiter.
strsplit() returns a list, each element is a character vector obtained by splitting the original string.
The syntax format of the strsplit() function is as follows:
strsplit(x, split, fixed = FALSE)
Parameter description:
xInput character vector.
splitDelimiter, can be a fixed character or a regular expression.
fixedWhether to treat split as a fixed string, default is FALSE (treated as a regular expression).
Example
# Split by comma
text <- "Zhang San, Li Si, Wang Wu, Zhao Liu"
result <- strsplit(text, ",")
print("Split by comma:")
print(result[[1]])
# Split multiple strings
texts <- c("A-B-C", "X-Y-Z")
result <- strsplit(texts, "-")
print("Split multiple strings:")
print(result)
text <- "Zhang San, Li Si, Wang Wu, Zhao Liu"
result <- strsplit(text, ",")
print("Split by comma:")
print(result[[1]])
# Split multiple strings
texts <- c("A-B-C", "X-Y-Z")
result <- strsplit(texts, "-")
print("Split multiple strings:")
print(result)
Running the above code produces the following result:
[1] "按逗号分割:" [1] "张三" "李四" "王五" "赵六" [1] "分割多个字符串:" [[1]] [1] "A" "B" "C" [[2]] [1] "X" "Y" "Z"
strsplit() is very useful when parsing structured text:
Example
# Parse date string "2026-05-11"
date_str <- "2026-05-11"
parts <- strsplit(date_str, "-")[[1]]
print(paste("Year:", parts[1], "Month:", parts[2], "Day:", parts[3]))
# Split sentence by spaces
sentence <- "EXAMPLE is a technical learning website"
words <- strsplit(sentence, " ")[[1]]
print("Words in the sentence:")
print(words)
date_str <- "2026-05-11"
parts <- strsplit(date_str, "-")[[1]]
print(paste("Year:", parts[1], "Month:", parts[2], "Day:", parts[3]))
# Split sentence by spaces
sentence <- "EXAMPLE is a technical learning website"
words <- strsplit(sentence, " ")[[1]]
print("Words in the sentence:")
print(words)
Running the above code produces the following result:
[1] "年: 2026 月: 05 日: 11" [1] "句子中的单词:" [1] "EXAMPLE" "是一个" "技术学习" "网站"Other extensions
R language examples