R - Numeric from "Strings" Using `gsub`

Method #1

Start with a vector or df ‘string’ convert to ‘numeric.’

dollar_string = c("1,234,567", "1,234")

dollar_numeric <- as.numeric(gsub(",", "", dollar_string))

typeof(dollar_numeric)

## [1] "double"

dollar_numeric

## [1] 1234567    1234

Method #2

df_string <- data.frame(x = c("6,131", "7,835", "2,222"),              
                        y = c("5,999", "3,136", "1,501"))

dup_df <- df_string
dup_df[, 1:2] <- lapply(df_string[, 1:2],  
                   function(x){ as.numeric(gsub(",", "", x)) })
dup_df   

##      x    y
## 1 6131 5999
## 2 7835 3136
## 3 2222 1501

EXTRA - European number strings to American format

str_numbers <- c("1.560,65", "134,2","123","0,32")
as.numeric(gsub(",", "\\.", gsub("\\.", "", str_numbers)))

[1] 1560.65  134.20  123.00    0.32