Resolved: How to put single quotation marks around comma-separated numbers in a character column of a data frame?

var1 <- c("1,2,3","1,24,41")
df1 <- data.frame(var1)
df1
##      var1
## 1   1,2,3
## 2 1,24,41

var1 <- c("'1','2','3'","'1','24','41'")
df2 <- data.frame(var1)
df2
##            var1
## 1   '1','2','3'
## 2 '1','24','41'
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</p>



I found a question on Stack Overflow which addresses a similar question (<a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38271895/put-quotation-marks-around-each-element-of-a-vector-and-separate-with-comma">Put quotation marks around each element of a vector, and separate with comma</a>). However, it is about a character vector. I can't figure out how to apply the solution in this case (or any other solution that might exist) to a character column of a data frame.<br> 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Answer:</h2>



As you have a full character string with the numbers, you cannot use the solutions you refer to as they start of with numeric vectors. Instead, you'll need to manipulate the strings. Here I look for numbers and replaces each match with itself in single quotes.<br> 


<p>[code]var1 <- stringr::str_replace_all(var1, "\\d+", "'\\0'")
[/code]

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or in your data frame:<br> 


<p>[code]df1$var2 <- stringr::str_replace_all(df1$var1, "\\d+", "'\\0'")
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</p>



Output:<br> 


<p>[code]> df1<br />
     var1          var2<br />
1   1,2,3   '1','2','3'<br />
2 1,24,41 '1','24','41'