str_view(), repetition at most n times yields error

[vanderlindenma]

r4ds/strings.Rmd

Line 363 in ce824d0

* `{,m}`: at most m

As I was writing lecture notes based on the "strings" chapter, I stumbled upon the exact same issue as described in this Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/rprogramming/comments/8oyy1a/stringr_str_view_repetition_at_most_n_times/

On my end, it looked like this. The intention was to show that there would be no match in this case. Instead, I get an error:

str_view_all("Misery, Misery, Misery that’s what Lord and Miller have chosen", "(Misery, ){,3}")

Error in stri_locate_all_regex(string, pattern, omit_no_match = TRUE, : Error in {min,max} interval. (U_REGEX_BAD_INTERVAL)

One of the answerers on Reddit explains:

"stringr uses ICU regular expressions, which apparently do not have the {,m} notation - use the explicit {n,m}."

Since the {,m} "method" is presented as a viable option in the latest version of the book and I did not see an open issue related to this, I thought I'd mention it here.

Perhaps the error message when using {,m} is clear enough and the inclusion of {,m} in the book is intentional (in the sense that it discusses a valid regex, albeit one that does not work with stingr, and is judiciously not included in the examples of stingr applications)?

[hadley]

This is fixed in the 2nd ed.