R: Rename duplicated character strings

unduplicateNames {oce} | R Documentation

## Rename duplicated character strings

### Description

Append numeric suffices to character strings, to avoid repeats. This is used by various data input functions, to handle the fact that several oceanographic data formats permit the reuse of variable names within a given file.

### Usage

    unduplicateNames(strings, style = 1)

### Arguments

`strings` | Vector of character strings.
`style` | An integer giving the style. If `style` is `1`, then e.g. a triplicate of `"a"` yields `"a"`, `"a1"`, and `"a2"`. If `style` is `2`, then the same input yields `"a_001"`, `"a_002"`, and `"a_003"`.

### Value

Vector of strings with repeats distinguished by suffix.

### See Also

Used by `read.ctd.sbe()` with `style=1` to rename repeated data elements (e.g. for multiple temperature sensors) in CTD data, and by `read.odf()` with `style=2` on key-value pairs within ODF metadata.

### Examples

    unduplicateNames(c("a", "b", "a", "c", "b"))
    unduplicateNames(c("a", "b", "a", "c", "b"), style=2)

[Package oce version 1.7-2 Index]