vectorized fn to expand a series (consecutive IDs implied)

expandSeries.R

# expanding a series, consecutive values
# by Filipe Chichorro, modified for vectors
expandSeries <- function(strStartEnd){
  
  words<-strsplit(strStartEnd, " ")
  
  if (length(words[[1]])== 1) return(strStartEnd)
   
  else
    
  start_str<-words[[1]][1]
  end_str<-words[[1]][3]
  
  start_split<-strsplit(start_str, "[.]")[[1]]
  end_split<-strsplit(end_str, "[.]")[[1]]
  
  start_nr<-as.integer(start_split[length(start_split)])
  end_nr<-as.integer(end_split[length(end_split)])
  base<-substr(start_str, 1, nchar(start_str)-        #fixed
                 nchar(start_split[length(start_split)]))
  final_str<-start_str
  for (i in ((start_nr + 1):end_nr)){
    final_str<-c(final_str, paste(base, i, sep=""))
  }
  final_strC <- paste(final_str,collapse = ", ")
  return(final_strC)
}

expandSeries <- Vectorize(FUN = expandSeries,USE.NAMES = FALSE)