grepreaper (version 0.1.0)

split_columns: Split columns based on a delimiter

Description

Efficiently splits character vectors into multiple columns based on a specified delimiter. This function is optimized for performance and handles common use cases like parsing grep output or other delimited text data.

Usage

split_columns(
  x,
  column.names = NA,
  split = ":",
  resulting.columns = 3,
  fixed = TRUE
)

Value

A data.table with split columns. Column names are automatically assigned as V1, V2, V3, etc. unless custom names are provided via column.names.

Arguments

x

Character vector to split

column.names

Names for the resulting columns (optional)

split

Delimiter to split on (default: ":")

resulting.columns

Number of columns to create (default: 3)

fixed

Whether to use fixed string matching (default: TRUE)

Examples

# Split grep-like output with colon delimiter
data <- c("file.txt:15:error message", "file.txt:23:warning message")
result <- split_columns(data, resulting.columns = 3)
print(result)

# With custom column names
result_named <- split_columns(data, 
                             column.names = c("filename", "line", "message"),
                             resulting.columns = 3)
print(result_named)

# Split into 2 columns (combining remaining elements)
result_2col <- split_columns(data, resulting.columns = 2)
print(result_2col)