[R] Encoding Vector of Strings into Numerical Matrix

[Gundala Viswanath]

Dear all,

Given such vector of array.

tags <- c("aaa", "ttt", "ccc", "gcc", "atn")

How can I obtain a matrix corresponding to it

     [,1] [,2] [,3]
[1,]    0    0    0
[2,]    3    3    3
[3,]    1    1    1
[4,]    2    1    1
[5,]    0    3   0


In principle:

1. Number of Column in matrix = length of string (= 3)
2. Number of Row in matrix = length of vector ( =4).
3. Character "a" encode as "0",
   "c" -> "1",
   "g" -> "2",
   "t" -> "3"
   "n" -> "0"

Length of strings are assumed to be uniform within the vector,
and it can be greater than 3 (up to 40 characters).

- Gundala Viswanath
Jakarta - Indonesia