Replace character vector values using a correspondence approach

Names of replacements are matched literally (not as regular expressions). Elements of input_vector that match none of the patterns are returned unchanged.

Usage

replace_multiple(input_vector, replacements, replace_all = FALSE)

Arguments

input_vector: Character. Character vector on which replacements take place.
replacements: Character. Named character vector defining replacement correspondences (names = patterns, values = replacements). Names are treated as literal strings (regex metacharacters such as ., (, + are not interpreted).
replace_all: Logical. If TRUE, stringr::str_replace_all() is used instead of stringr::str_replace().

Value

Character vector with replacements applied.

Overlapping patterns

When several patterns can match the same element, the first match found in input_vector (scanned left to right) is used. When patterns start at the same position, the one listed first in replacements wins, not the longest. Order replacements accordingly if some patterns are prefixes of others.

Examples

input <- c("one-one", "two-two-one", "three-three-two")

replace_multiple(input,
                 replacements =
                   c("one" = "1", "two" = "2",
                     "three" = "3"))
#> [1] "1-one"       "2-two-one"   "3-three-two"

replace_multiple(input,
                 replacements =
                   c("one" = "1", "two" = "2",
                     "three" = "3"),
                 replace_all = TRUE)
#> [1] "1-1"     "2-2-one" "3-3-two"

# Unmatched elements are returned as-is:
replace_multiple(c("one", "unmatched"), c("one" = "1"))
#> [1] "1"         "unmatched"

# Regex metacharacters are matched literally:
replace_multiple(c("a.b", "aXb"), c("." = "DOT"))
#> [1] "aDOTb" "aXb"