如何用gsub移除字符串中括号内的英文字符（适配多括号场景）

Got it, let's sort out this multi-parentheses issue for you!

The Problem with Your Original Code #

Your initial regex gsub('\(.*?[a-zA-Z]\)', '', x) works fine for single parentheses, but it fails with multiple pairs because it doesn't properly target complete parentheses pairs that contain English characters. Instead, the non-greedy .*? will skip over parentheses without English text and keep matching until it hits the first English character in a later pair—this ends up deleting way more content than you want.

The Solution: Target Complete Parentheses Pairs with English Text #

We need a regex that specifically matches entire parentheses pairs where there's at least one English character inside. Here's the adjusted code:

# Your multi-parentheses input
x <- "Определение полиморфизма A1648G (замена аденина на гуанин в позиции 1648) в гене гликопротеина la (GpIA)"

# Remove only parentheses pairs containing English characters
result <- gsub('\\([^)]*[a-zA-Z][^)]*\\)', '', x)

# Print the result
cat(result)

Output:

Определение полиморфизма A1648G (замена аденина на гуанин в позиции 1648) в гене гликопротеина la 

Clean Up Extra Spaces #

If you want to get rid of the trailing space (or any extra spaces around removed parentheses), add space matching to the regex and use trimws():

result_clean <- trimws(gsub('\\s*\\([^)]*[a-zA-Z][^)]*\\)\\s*', ' ', x))
cat(result_clean)

Clean Output:

Определение полиморфизма A1648G (замена аденина на гуанин в позиции 1648) в гене гликопротеина la

Regex Breakdown #

Let's break down why this works:

• \\(: Matches the opening parenthesis (escaped because parentheses are special regex characters)
• [^)]*: Matches any number of characters except a closing parenthesis—this ensures we don't cross into other parentheses pairs
• [a-zA-Z]: Ensures we only target parentheses that contain at least one English character
• [^)]*: Matches any remaining characters inside the parentheses pair
• \\): Matches the closing parenthesis
• \\s*: Optional leading/trailing spaces to clean up whitespace after removal

Verify with Single Parentheses #

This code also works for your original single-parentheses case:

x_single <- "Бактериологическое исследование отделяемого слизистой оболочки прямой кишки на гонококк (Nesseria gonorrheeae)"
result_single <- trimws(gsub('\\s*\\([^)]*[a-zA-Z][^)]*\\)\\s*', ' ', x_single))
cat(result_single)

Output:

Бактериологическое исследование отделяемого слизистой оболочки прямой кишки на гонококк

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者john