Convert bytes in string to appropriate char(s)

bytes2char.R

bytes2char <- function(x) {
  m <- gregexpr("<[[:alnum:]]{2}>", x)
  y <- regmatches(x, m)[[1]]
  y <- gsub("^<|>$", "", y)
  y <- strsplit(y, "[><]+")
  regmatches(x, m) <- list(sapply(y, function(.x) rawToChar(as.raw(paste0("0x", .x)))))
  x
}

## read in string with bytes
x <- iconv("“This <cat>’s tail is curly.”'", to = "ascii", sub = "byte")
 
## before
x
#> [1] "<e2><80><9c>This <cat><e2><80><99>s tail is curly.<e2><80><9d>'"

## after
bytes2char(x)
#> [1] "“This <cat>’s tail is curly.”'"