replace a specific part of a string with the value of a variable with R

Question

Hi I have an URL string but I need to replace a specific portion of the string to a variable

this is the code I have

todays_date <- as.character(Sys.Date())


   URL <- "https://api.performancehorizon.com/reporting/export/export/click.csv?start_date=2021-11-23+00%3A00%3A00&end_date=2021-11-24+00%3A00%3A00&campaign_id=1011l3888&convert_currency=USD&ref_conversion_metric_id%5B%5D=2"

I would need to change the date where it says end_date at this moment is 2021-11-23 to whatever value the variable todays_date is, in this case is the sysdate (11/24/2021) so the final string should be

"https://api.performancehorizon.com/reporting/export/export/click.csv?start_date=2021-11-23+00%3A00%3A00&end_date=2021-11-24+00%3A00%3A00&campaign_id=1011l3888&convert_currency=USD&ref_conversion_metric_id%5B%5D=2"

I imagine there should be like a wild card where the variable would be in.

Thanks

user10917479 · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-24 20:11:32Z

1

The package glue can be helpful in cases like this. Notice I added in {todays_date} to your URL string.

todays_date <- as.character(Sys.Date())

URL <- "https://api.performancehorizon.com/reporting/export/export/click.csv?start_date=2021-11-23+00%3A00%3A00&end_date={todays_date}+00%3A00%3A00&campaign_id=1011l3888&convert_currency=USD&ref_conversion_metric_id%5B%5D=2"

library(glue)
glue(URL)

Or of course, you can simply break up the URL and paste it back together.

URL_1 <- "https://api.performancehorizon.com/reporting/export/export/click.csv?start_date=2021-11-23+00%3A00%3A00&end_date="
URL_2 <- "+00%3A00%3A00&campaign_id=1011l3888&convert_currency=USD&ref_conversion_metric_id%5B%5D=2"

paste0(URL_1, todays_date, URL_2)

answered Nov 24, 2021 at 20:11

user10917479

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6 Comments

Juan Lozano Over a year ago

this works, and I like that you can tell "hey here it is where it goes" but is there a way to do this without having to breaking the URL, just in one pass

user10917479 Over a year ago

@JuanLozano what do you mean in one pass? Like not having to put the variable in like that in the glue statement? Or not having to split the URL in the paste0? These are probably the two most simple ways to go about it.

Juan Lozano Over a year ago

not having to split the URL

user10917479 Over a year ago

If you want to use paste() like that then you would need to split it. The glue solution let's you do it without breaking up the URL by just substituting in the value.

G. Grothendieck Over a year ago

This changed the question in order to answer it effectively answering a different question. The other answer did directly answer the question.

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akrun · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-24 20:04:03Z

1

We may use str_replace

library(stringr)
str_replace(URL, "(?<=end_date\\=)\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2}", todays_date)

answered Nov 24, 2021 at 20:04

akrun

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