Replace strings in variable using lookup vector - r

Question

I have a dataframe df with a character variable and the fromvec and tovec.
df <- tibble(var = c("A", "B", "C", "a", "E", "D", "b"))
fromvec <- c("A", "B", "C")
tovec <- c("X", "Y", "Z")
Use strings in fromvec, check them in df and then replace them with the corresponding strings in tovec so that "A" in df gets replaced with "X", "B" with "Y" and so on to get the desired_df.
desired_df <- tibble(var = c("X", "Y", "Z", "X", "E", "D", "Y"))
I tried following, but not getting the desired result!
from_vec <- paste(fromvec, collapse="|")
to_vec <- paste(tovec, collapse="|")
undesired_df <- df %>%
mutate(var = str_replace(str_to_upper(var), from_vec, to_vec))
i.e. this
tibble(var = c("X|Y|Z", "X|Y|Z", "X|Y|Z", "X|Y|Z", "E", "D", "X|Y|Z"))
How can I get the desired_df?

Answer 1

You could use chartr :
df$var <- chartr(paste(fromvec,collapse=""),
paste(tovec,collapse=""),
toupper(df$var))
# # A tibble: 7 x 1
# var
# <chr>
# 1 X
# 2 Y
# 3 Z
# 4 X
# 5 E
# 6 D
# 7 Y
Or we can use recode
library(dplyr)
df$var <- recode(toupper(df$var), !!!setNames(tovec,fromvec))
If you really want to use str_replace you could do:
library(purrr)
library(stringr)
df$var <- reduce2(fromvec, tovec, str_replace, .init=toupper(df$var))

Answer 2

The correct way to do this with stringr is with str_replace_all:
mutate(df,str_replace_all(str_to_upper(var),setNames(tovec, fromvec)))
(thanks, #Moody_Mudskipper!)

Answer 3

We can use base R
with(df, ifelse(toupper(var) %in% fromvec,
setNames(tovec, fromvec)[toupper(var)], var))
#[1] "X" "Y" "Z" "X" "E" "D" "Y"
which can be also written in two lines by creating a logical condition
i1 <- toupper(df$var) %in% fromvec
df$var[i1] <- setNames(tovec, fromvec)[toupper(df$var)[i1]]
Or using data.table
library(data.table)
setDT(df)[toupper(var) %in% fromvec, var := setNames(tovec, fromvec)[toupper(var)]]

Answer 4

It's not clear the result should be case insensitive.
In my opinion, replacement (update) operations that involve an indeterminate number of changes are best accomplished using JOINs. In this case, it also cements a good practice of tracking your changes in a separate dataframe.
Unfortunately, the tidyverse has no "update dataframe" function....a glaring omission. That means tidyverse-ers must use a work-around, coalesce.
#JOIN Operation
tibble(fromvec, tovec) %>% #< dataframe of changes
right_join(df, by = c("fromvec" = "var")) %>% #< join operation
transmute(var = coalesce(tovec, fromvec)) #< coalesce work-around
# A tibble: 7 x 1
var
<chr>
1 X
2 Y
3 Z
4 a
5 E
6 D
7 b
If a case insensitive operation is preferred, consider inserting str_to_upper in the pipeline:
tibble(fromvec, tovec) %>%
right_join(df %>% mutate(var = (str_to_upper(var))), #<modify case
by = c("fromvec" = "var")) %>%
transmute(var = coalesce(tovec, fromvec))
# A tibble: 7 x 1
var
<chr>
1 X
2 Y
3 Z
4 X
5 E
6 D
7 Y