[R] converting a string to a vector without using strsplit and unlink?

[Tancred Frickey]

Hi

I am importing some data from a postgres database and one of the fields 
contains an array of values. This field is in the form "{1,2,3,4,5}" and 
is imported as a character string into "R".  I am able to convert the 
string into a vector of numerics using the strsplit and unlist 
functions, but I find that a very inelegant (and slow) solution.
As an alternative I have coaxed the database into exporting the data in 
the form "c(1,2,3,4,5)" and importing that into R. Unfortunately this is 
also interpreted as one long character string instead of a vector 
containing values. If I edit the corresponding fields in the table with 
the "edit" command and remove the quotes at the beginning and end of the 
line, the data is recognized as a vector of numerics.

Question: Is there any direct or easy way of converting a string 
"c(1,2,3,4,5)" into a vector of values without going through 
strsplit&unlist and/or is there a way to import arrays from postgres 
directly as arrays or vectors and not strings (and thereby avoid all the 
trouble in the first place).


Best wishes

Tancred