Find start and end index of pattern in string

str_start() finds the beginning position of pattern in each element of x, while str_end() finds the stopping position of pattern in each element of x.

str_start(x, pattern, ignore.case = TRUE)

str_end(x, pattern, ignore.case = TRUE)

Arguments

x	A character vector.
pattern	Character string to be matched in x. pattern might also be a regular-expression object, as returned by regex, or any of stringr's supported modifiers.
ignore.case	Logical, whether matching should be case sensitive or not.

Value

A numeric vector with index of start/end position(s) of pattern found in x, or an empty vector, if pattern was not found in x.

Examples

path <- "this/is/my/fileofinterest.csv"
str_start(path, "/")
#> [1]  5  8 11

path <- "this//is//my//fileofinterest.csv"
str_start(path, "//")
#> [1]  5  9 13
str_end(path, "//")
#> [1]  6 10 14

x <- c("my_friend_likes me", "your_friend likes_you")
str_start(x, "_")
#> [[1]]
#> [1]  3 10
#> 
#> [[2]]
#> [1]  5 18
#> 

# pattern "likes" starts at position 11 in first, and
# position 13 in second string
str_start(x, "likes")
#> [[1]]
#> [1] 11
#> 
#> [[2]]
#> [1] 13
#> 

# pattern "likes" ends at position 15 in first, and
# position 17 in second string
str_end(x, "likes")
#> [[1]]
#> [1] 15
#> 
#> [[2]]
#> [1] 17
#> 

x <- c("I like to move it, move it", "You like to move it")
str_start(x, "move")
#> [[1]]
#> [1] 11 20
#> 
#> [[2]]
#> [1] 13
#> 
str_end(x, "move")
#> [[1]]
#> [1] 14 23
#> 
#> [[2]]
#> [1] 16
#>