shyquote does not work! What to do? - r

Question

I would like to convert the following list into a list where all names are between " " (spaces)
I tried shQuote, gsub(" ", "", ) and these methods; Creating a comma separated vector, but no success so far...
George Ezra, Faith No More, Above & Beyond, Paloma Faith, Gavin James, DJ’s Waxfiend, Jebroer, Adje, Pop Evil, Jick munro & the amazing laserbeams, Robbie Williams, Avicii, The Script, Anouk, Kensington, Eagles of Death Metal, Dotan, The Wombats, Selah Sue, Shappard, John Coffey, Magic!, Joost van Bellen, East Camoran Folkcore, Foo Fighters, Pharrel Williams, Sam Smith, One Republic, Rise Agianst, De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, Counting Crows, Fiddler’s Green, Thyphoon, Kovacs, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, Oscar and the Wolf, Nick Mulvey, Urbanus, Willie Wartaal, Doppelgang, Ewert and the two dragons, Pierce Brothers,Kovacs, The Kendolls, Stringcaster, Sunday Sun, Toy Dolls, A$AP Rocky, Ride, Eskmo, Temples, The Pop Group, Blank Mass, Cairo Liberation Front, Daniel Norgren, Follakzoid, Ghost Culture, John Coffey, Kevin Morby, Kuenta I Tambu, Marmozets, Mourn, Patten, Sue The Night, The Coathangers, Tora, Vessels, The Libertines, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Brids, Noel Gallagher, AltJ, Altj, Royal Blood, Sohn, The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Tallest Man On Earth, Black Mountain, Chet Faker, Death Cab For Cutie, Ear Sweatshirt, Evian Christ, Frist Aid Kit, Future Islands, Jonny Greenwood, Mew, Of Monsters And Men, The Vaccines, Ariel Pink, Alvvays, Wolf Alice, Weval, BADBADNOTGOOD, Bass Drum Of Death, Yak, Daniel Romand, Dan Dercon, Eagulls, Gengahr, Fickle friends, Steve Gunn, Liima, Hookworms, Kate Tempest, Kiasmds, Strand of Oaks, Little May , Matthew E. White, Metz, Off!, St. Paul, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Pissed Jeans, Pretty Vicious, Reigning Sound, Outfit, Sunset Sons, Waxahatchee, Daniel Wilson, Yung Lean, Kindess, Hinds,Damien Rice, The War On Drugs, Iggy Pop, FKA Twigs, Patti Smith And Her Band Perform Horses, Flying Lotus, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Damian Jr Gong Marley, Alabama Shakes, The Gaslamp Killer, Max Richter, Motorpsycho, Goat, Songhoy Blues, Andrew Brid, Glass Animals, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Misun, JD MCPherson, Happyness, Dolomite Minor, Meridian Brothers, Death From Above 1979, Blaudzun, Oscar And The Wolf, Clark, Ghost Poet, Omar Souleyman, Rhye, Bejamin Booker, Orkesta Mendoza, Ganz,The Chemical Brothers, Patrick Watson, Bleachers, The War on Drugs, The Antlers, Hot Chip, Rico & Sticks, Awolnation

Answer 1

A simple strsplit() will do.
my.bands <- "George Ezra, Faith No More, Above & Beyond, Paloma Faith, Gavin James, DJ’s Waxfiend, Jebroer, Adje, Pop Evil, Jick munro & the amazing laserbeams, Robbie Williams, Avicii, The Script, Anouk, Kensington, Eagles of Death Metal, Dotan, The Wombats, Selah Sue, Shappard, John Coffey, Magic!, Joost van Bellen, East Camoran Folkcore, Foo Fighters, Pharrel Williams, Sam Smith, One Republic, Rise Agianst, De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, Counting Crows, Fiddler’s Green, Thyphoon, Kovacs, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, Oscar and the Wolf, Nick Mulvey, Urbanus, Willie Wartaal, Doppelgang, Ewert and the two dragons, Pierce Brothers,Kovacs, The Kendolls, Stringcaster, Sunday Sun, Toy Dolls, A$AP Rocky, Ride, Eskmo, Temples, The Pop Group, Blank Mass, Cairo Liberation Front, Daniel Norgren, Follakzoid, Ghost Culture, John Coffey, Kevin Morby, Kuenta I Tambu, Marmozets, Mourn, Patten, Sue The Night, The Coathangers, Tora, Vessels, The Libertines, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Brids, Noel Gallagher, AltJ, Altj, Royal Blood, Sohn, The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Tallest Man On Earth, Black Mountain, Chet Faker, Death Cab For Cutie, Ear Sweatshirt, Evian Christ, Frist Aid Kit, Future Islands, Jonny Greenwood, Mew, Of Monsters And Men, The Vaccines, Ariel Pink, Alvvays, Wolf Alice, Weval, BADBADNOTGOOD, Bass Drum Of Death, Yak, Daniel Romand, Dan Dercon, Eagulls, Gengahr, Fickle friends, Steve Gunn, Liima, Hookworms, Kate Tempest, Kiasmds, Strand of Oaks, Little May , Matthew E. White, Metz, Off!, St. Paul, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Pissed Jeans, Pretty Vicious, Reigning Sound, Outfit, Sunset Sons, Waxahatchee, Daniel Wilson, Yung Lean, Kindess, Hinds,Damien Rice, The War On Drugs, Iggy Pop, FKA Twigs, Patti Smith And Her Band Perform Horses, Flying Lotus, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Damian Jr Gong Marley, Alabama Shakes, The Gaslamp Killer, Max Richter, Motorpsycho, Goat, Songhoy Blues, Andrew Brid, Glass Animals, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Misun, JD MCPherson, Happyness, Dolomite Minor, Meridian Brothers, Death From Above 1979, Blaudzun, Oscar And The Wolf, Clark, Ghost Poet, Omar Souleyman, Rhye, Bejamin Booker, Orkesta Mendoza, Ganz,The Chemical Brothers, Patrick Watson, Bleachers, The War on Drugs, The Antlers, Hot Chip, Rico & Sticks, Awolnation"
my.bands.vector <- strsplit(my.bands, ', ')[[1]] ## you could probably stop here, but you asked for a list, which means something specific in R
my.bands.list <- as.list(my.bands.vector)
> str(my.bands.list)
List of 159
$ : chr "George Ezra"
$ : chr "Faith No More"
$ : chr "Above & Beyond"
$ : chr "Paloma Faith"
$ : chr "Gavin James"
[list output truncated]
And if you want to convert back to a string with 's in the string:
paste(shQuote(my.bands.list, type = "sh"), collapse = ', ')
[1] "'George Ezra', 'Faith No More', 'Above & Beyond', 'Paloma Faith', 'Gavin James', 'DJ’s Waxfiend', 'Jebroer', 'Adje', 'Pop Evil', 'Jick munro & the amazing laserbeams', 'Robbie Williams', 'Avicii', 'The Script', 'Anouk', 'Kensington', 'Eagles of Death Metal', 'Dotan', 'The Wombats', 'Selah Sue', 'Shappard', 'John Coffey', 'Magic!', 'Joost van Bellen', 'East Camoran Folkcore', 'Foo Fighters', 'Pharrel Williams', 'Sam Smith', 'One Republic', 'Rise Agianst', 'De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig', 'Counting Crows', 'Fiddler’s Green', 'Thyphoon', 'Kovacs', 'Kitty', 'Daisy & Lewis', 'Oscar and the Wolf', 'Nick Mulvey', 'Urbanus', 'Willie Wartaal', 'Doppelgang', 'Ewert and the two dragons', 'Pierce Brothers,Kovacs', 'The Kendolls', 'Stringcaster', 'Sunday Sun', 'Toy Dolls', 'A$AP Rocky', 'Ride', 'Eskmo', 'Temples', 'The Pop Group', 'Blank Mass', 'Cairo Liberation Front', 'Daniel Norgren', 'Follakzoid', 'Ghost Culture', 'John Coffey', 'Kevin Morby', 'Kuenta I Tambu', 'Marmozets', 'Mourn', 'Patten', 'Sue The Night', 'The Coathangers', 'Tora', 'Vessels', 'The Libertines', 'Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Brids', 'Noel Gallagher', 'AltJ', 'Altj', 'Royal Blood', 'Sohn', 'The Jesus & Mary Chain', 'The Tallest Man On Earth', 'Black Mountain', 'Chet Faker', 'Death Cab For Cutie', 'Ear Sweatshirt', 'Evian Christ', 'Frist Aid Kit', 'Future Islands', 'Jonny Greenwood', 'Mew', 'Of Monsters And Men', 'The Vaccines', 'Ariel Pink', 'Alvvays', 'Wolf Alice', 'Weval', 'BADBADNOTGOOD', 'Bass Drum Of Death', 'Yak', 'Daniel Romand', 'Dan Dercon', 'Eagulls', 'Gengahr', 'Fickle friends', 'Steve Gunn', 'Liima', 'Hookworms', 'Kate Tempest', 'Kiasmds', 'Strand of Oaks', 'Little May ', 'Matthew E. White', 'Metz', 'Off!', 'St. Paul', 'St. Paul & The Broken Bones', 'Pissed Jeans', 'Pretty Vicious', 'Reigning Sound', 'Outfit', 'Sunset Sons', 'Waxahatchee', 'Daniel Wilson', 'Yung Lean', 'Kindess', 'Hinds,Damien Rice', 'The War On Drugs', 'Iggy Pop', 'FKA Twigs', 'Patti Smith And Her Band Perform Horses', 'Flying Lotus', 'Fat Freddy’s Drop', 'Damian Jr Gong Marley', 'Alabama Shakes', 'The Gaslamp Killer', 'Max Richter', 'Motorpsycho', 'Goat', 'Songhoy Blues', 'Andrew Brid', 'Glass Animals', 'King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard', 'Misun', 'JD MCPherson', 'Happyness', 'Dolomite Minor', 'Meridian Brothers', 'Death From Above 1979', 'Blaudzun', 'Oscar And The Wolf', 'Clark', 'Ghost Poet', 'Omar Souleyman', 'Rhye', 'Bejamin Booker', 'Orkesta Mendoza', 'Ganz,The Chemical Brothers', 'Patrick Watson', 'Bleachers', 'The War on Drugs', 'The Antlers', 'Hot Chip', 'Rico & Sticks', 'Awolnation'"
Here's the double quote version, notice that double quotes must be escaped.
paste(shQuote(my.bands.list, type = "cmd"), collapse = ', ')
[1] "\"George Ezra\", \"Faith No More\", \"Above & Beyond\", \"Paloma Faith\", \"Gavin James\", \"DJ’s Waxfiend\", \"Jebroer\", \"Adje\", \"Pop Evil\", \"Jick munro & the amazing laserbeams\", \"Robbie Williams\", \"Avicii\", \"The Script\", \"Anouk\", \"Kensington\", \"Eagles of Death Metal\", \"Dotan\", \"The Wombats\", \"Selah Sue\", \"Shappard\", \"John Coffey\", \"Magic!\", \"Joost van Bellen\", \"East Camoran Folkcore\", \"Foo Fighters\", \"Pharrel Williams\", \"Sam Smith\", \"One Republic\", \"Rise Agianst\", \"De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig\", \"Counting Crows\", \"Fiddler’s Green\", \"Thyphoon\", \"Kovacs\", \"Kitty\", \"Daisy & Lewis\", \"Oscar and the Wolf\", \"Nick Mulvey\", \"Urbanus\", \"Willie Wartaal\", \"Doppelgang\", \"Ewert and the two dragons\", \"Pierce Brothers,Kovacs\", \"The Kendolls\", \"Stringcaster\", \"Sunday Sun\", \"Toy Dolls\", \"A$AP Rocky\", \"Ride\", \"Eskmo\", \"Temples\", \"The Pop Group\", \"Blank Mass\", \"Cairo Liberation Front\", \"Daniel Norgren\", \"Follakzoid\", \"Ghost Culture\", \"John Coffey\", \"Kevin Morby\", \"Kuenta I Tambu\", \"Marmozets\", \"Mourn\", \"Patten\", \"Sue The Night\", \"The Coathangers\", \"Tora\", \"Vessels\", \"The Libertines\", \"Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Brids\", \"Noel Gallagher\", \"AltJ\", \"Altj\", \"Royal Blood\", \"Sohn\", \"The Jesus & Mary Chain\", \"The Tallest Man On Earth\", \"Black Mountain\", \"Chet Faker\", \"Death Cab For Cutie\", \"Ear Sweatshirt\", \"Evian Christ\", \"Frist Aid Kit\", \"Future Islands\", \"Jonny Greenwood\", \"Mew\", \"Of Monsters And Men\", \"The Vaccines\", \"Ariel Pink\", \"Alvvays\", \"Wolf Alice\", \"Weval\", \"BADBADNOTGOOD\", \"Bass Drum Of Death\", \"Yak\", \"Daniel Romand\", \"Dan Dercon\", \"Eagulls\", \"Gengahr\", \"Fickle friends\", \"Steve Gunn\", \"Liima\", \"Hookworms\", \"Kate Tempest\", \"Kiasmds\", \"Strand of Oaks\", \"Little May \", \"Matthew E. White\", \"Metz\", \"Off!\", \"St. Paul\", \"St. Paul & The Broken Bones\", \"Pissed Jeans\", \"Pretty Vicious\", \"Reigning Sound\", \"Outfit\", \"Sunset Sons\", \"Waxahatchee\", \"Daniel Wilson\", \"Yung Lean\", \"Kindess\", \"Hinds,Damien Rice\", \"The War On Drugs\", \"Iggy Pop\", \"FKA Twigs\", \"Patti Smith And Her Band Perform Horses\", \"Flying Lotus\", \"Fat Freddy’s Drop\", \"Damian Jr Gong Marley\", \"Alabama Shakes\", \"The Gaslamp Killer\", \"Max Richter\", \"Motorpsycho\", \"Goat\", \"Songhoy Blues\", \"Andrew Brid\", \"Glass Animals\", \"King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard\", \"Misun\", \"JD MCPherson\", \"Happyness\", \"Dolomite Minor\", \"Meridian Brothers\", \"Death From Above 1979\", \"Blaudzun\", \"Oscar And The Wolf\", \"Clark\", \"Ghost Poet\", \"Omar Souleyman\", \"Rhye\", \"Bejamin Booker\", \"Orkesta Mendoza\", \"Ganz,The Chemical Brothers\", \"Patrick Watson\", \"Bleachers\", \"The War on Drugs\", \"The Antlers\", \"Hot Chip\", \"Rico & Sticks\", \"Awolnation\""