Steven Sanderson grabs a name:
Hello, R users! Today, we’ll dive into a common text manipulation task: extracting strings before a space. This is a handy trick for dealing with names, addresses, or any text data where you need to isolate the first part of a string.
We’ll explore three approaches: using base R,
stringr, andstringi. Each method offers its unique advantages, so you can choose the one that fits your style best.
Click through for the three examples. I will note that if you’re actually using this code to split names, well, names tend to be a lot trickier than we give them credit for. Keep in mind that people can have multi-part names (“Debbie Mae” or “van den Berg”), so unless you know the data all follows a specific pattern, don’t assume the data follows a specific pattern.