How to read txt file and replace word in R?

Question

In file a.txt containing "abc", I want to replace "abc" with "ccccccccccccccccccccc", How to read and replace in R? Thank you!

a.txt contents:

{\rtf1
{\fonttbl{\f1\fmodern\fcharset134;}}
{\info}
\sectd\pgwsxn11907\pghsxn16840\marglsxn1418\margrsxn1418
\margtsxn1440\margbsxn1440\sectdefaultcl
\headery851{\header\pard\qr\fs18\par}
\footery992{\footer\pard\qc\f0\fs18\chpgn\par}
\pard\qc\sb30\sa30\fs21 \par
\trowd\trautofit1\trgaph0\trleft-75\intbl\trqc           
\clbrdrt\brdrs\brdrw30\clbrdrb\brdrs\brdrw10\clvertalc\cellx6993\clbrdrt
\brdrs\brdrw30\clbrdrb\brdrs\brdrw10\clvertalc\cellx13986\clbrdrt\brdrs\brdrw30
\clbrdrb\brdrs\brdrw10\clvertalc\cellx20979
\qc\fs21 x\cell\qc\fs21 y\cell\qc\fs21 z\cell\row
\trowd\trautofit1\trgaph0\trleft-75\trqc                  
\clvertalc\cellx6993\clvertalc\cellx13986
\clvertalc\cellx20979
\qc\fs21 a\cell\qc\fs21 b\cell\qc\fs21 abc\cell\row
\trowd\trautofit1\trgaph0\trleft-75\intbl\trqc   
\clbrdrb\brdrs\brdrw30\clvertalc\cellx6993\clbrdrb\brdrs\brdrw30
\clvertalc\cellx13986\clbrdrb\brdrs\brdrw30\clvertalc\cellx20979
\qc\fs21 d\cell\qc\fs21 e\cell\qc\fs21 f\cell\row
}    

Answer 1

It's easy :

• load your text in R using readLines (or scan)
• change your pattern using sub or gsub
• export your text to a text file using writeLines or scan

Example:

tx  <- readLines("~/Desktop/text.txt")
tx2  <- gsub(pattern = "abc", replace = "ccccccccccccccccccccc", x = tx)
writeLines(tx2, con="~/Desktop/text2.txt")

See R Programming wikibooks if you want to know more

Answer 2

Original @PAC's variant but without creating variables. It uses the R-base native pipe (R 4.1.0) and the stringr package (a part of the tidyverse).

readLines("~/Desktop/text.txt") |>
  stringr::str_replace(
    pattern = "abc", 
    replace = "ccccccccccccccccccccc") |>
  writeLines(con = "~/Desktop/text2.txt")