

_A_b_b_r_e_v_i_a_t_e _S_t_r_i_n_g_s

     abbreviate(names.arg, minlength = 4, use.classes = TRUE,
                dot = FALSE)

_A_r_g_u_m_e_n_t_s:

names.arg: a vector of names to be abbreviated.

minlength: the minimum length of the abbreviations.

use.classes: logical (currently ignored by R).

     dot: logical; should a dot (`"."') be appended?

_D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n:

     Abbreviate Strings to at least `minlength' characters,
     such that they remain unique (if they were).

_D_e_t_a_i_l_s:

     The algorithm used is similar to that of S.  First
     spaces at the beginning of the word are stripped.  Then
     any other spaces are stripped.  Next lower case vowels
     are removed followed by lower case consonants.  Finally
     if the abbreviation is still longer than `minlength'
     upper case letters are stripped.

     Letters are always stripped from the end of the word
     first.  If an element of `names.arg' contains more than
     one word (words are separated by space) then at least
     one letter from each word will be retained.  If a sin-
     gle string is passed it is abbreviated in the same
     manner as a vector of strings.

     If `use.classes' is `FALSE' then the only distinction
     is to be between letters and space.  This has NOT been
     implemented.

_V_a_l_u_e:

     A character vector containing abbreviations for the
     strings in its first argument.  Duplicates in the ori-
     ginal `names.arg' will be given identical abbrevia-
     tions.  If any non-duplicated elements have the same
     `minlength' abbreviations then `minlength' is incre-
     mented by one and new abbreviations are found for those
     elements only.  This process is repeated until all
     unique elements of `names.arg' have unique abbrevia-
     tions.

     The character version of `names.arg' is attached to the
     returned value as a names argument.

_S_e_e _A_l_s_o:

     `substr'.

_E_x_a_m_p_l_e_s:

     x <- c("abcd", "efgh", "abce")
     abbreviate(x, 2)

     data(state)
     (st.abb <- abbreviate(state.name, 2))
     table(nchar(st.abb))# out of 50, 3 need 4 letters

     x <- c("abcd", "efgh", "abce")
     abbreviate(x, 2)

     data(state)
     (st.abb <- abbreviate(state.name, 2))
     table(nchar(st.abb))# out of 50, 3 need 4 letters

