R: remove hidden line break characters from text strings within a data frame

Question

I have discovered that some strings within my data frame contain hidden line break characters, though I can't tell exactly which (when loaded into gVim they simply show up as line breaks). The following code:

gsub("[\r\n]", "", x)

successfully removes the line breaks from within the strings. However, it also removes the line breaks separating the cells, making my data frame atomic instead of recursive. How can I target only the line breaks within the strings while keeping my data frame intact?

Here's a sample of the data:

sample data frame

Without the sample data I can't test it, but you could try something like dataframe$string_column <- sapply(dataframe$string_column, function(x) { gsub("[\r\n]", "", x) }). That way it gets applied to the elements of the column rather than the entire dataframe — Punintended
Thank you both so much for taking the time to respond! Punintended, your suggested solution worked perfectly. — Beth Snyder

Eric Fail Eric Fail · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-19T14:58:48

copying the comments above to close the question,

dataframe <- data.frame(ID = 1:2, Name = 'XX',
  string_column = c('Hi \r\nyou\r\n', 'Always \r\nshare\r\n some \r\nsample\r\n data!'))
  dataframe$string_column  
#> [1] Hi \r\nyou\r\n                                
#> [2] Always \r\nshare\r\n some \r\nsample\r\n data!
#> Levels: Always \r\nshare\r\n some \r\nsample\r\n data! Hi \r\nyou\r\n

dataframe$string_column <- sapply(dataframe$string_column,
                                    function(x) { gsub("[\r\n]", "", x) })
dataframe$string_column
#> [1] "Hi you"                         "Always share some sample data!"

R: remove hidden line break characters from text strings within a data frame

1 Answers