Finding Differences Between Strings

Source: R/utils.R

Computes which characters differ between two strings.

str_diff(x, y)

Arguments

x

a single string
y

a single string

Value

an integer vector containing the index of all mis-matched characters in the first string.

Examples


# strings to compare
x <- "once upon a time"
y <- "once upon a time there was"
z <- "once upon two times"

# diff: x - y
d <- str_diff(x, y)
d

#> once upon a time 
#> ................---------- 
#> once upon a time there was 
str(d)

#>  'str_diff' Named int(0) 
#>  - attr(*, "names")= chr(0) 
#>  - attr(*, "str")=List of 2
#>   ..$ x: chr "once upon a time"
#>   ..$ y: chr "once upon a time there was"

# other comparisons 
str_diff(y, x)

#> once upon a time there was 
#> ................++++++++++ 
#> once upon a time 
str_diff(x, x)

#> once upon a time 
#> ................ 
#> once upon a time 
str_diff(x, z)

#> once upon a time 
#> ..........******--- 
#> once upon two times 
str_diff(y, z)

#> once upon a time there was 
#> ..........*********+++++++ 
#> once upon two times