I am trying to create on a dummy dataset using the following code to create the variables:

    example_variable <- labelled(sample(c(1, 5, 8), N, replace = T),
                        labels = c("apple" = 1,
                                   "banana" = 5,
                                   "lychee" = 8))

All good, but I am working with an example data set that is empty, so I have copy the categorical variables from this, for example:

     <labelled<double>[0]>: Leeftijd [4 klassen]

  Labels:
 value          label
 1 15 tot 25 jaar
 2 25 tot 55 jaar
 3 55 tot 65 jaar
 4 65 tot 75 jaar
 9       onbekend

However, some of them have many, many categories so typing it would be very time consuming. Also the numbers are not always in a logical sequence. What I am trying to do is the following:

copy the labels and put them as text;

then extract the numbers using:

  numbers <- unlist(str_extract_all(text, "(?<!\\d)\\d+"))
  numbers <- as.numeric(numbers)

extract the text using (the -1 is because i get an empty character string in the end):

 d <- head(unlist(str_split(text, "(?<!\\d)\\d+")), -1)
 d <- gsub("[\r\n]", "", d)
 d <- str_trim(d, side = "both") 

My idea was to paste this together with an equal sign in the middle and a comma at the end, but i am fighting with the quotation marks. Regular paste() or paste0() does not work and neither does unquote():

d <- c("apple", "banana", "lychee")
numbers <- c(1, 5, 8)

paste(d, "=", numbers)
[1] "apple = 1"  "banana = 5" "lychee = 8"

paste0("\"", d, "\" = ", numbers, "\"", ",")
[1] "\"apple\" = 1\","  "\"banana\" = 5\"," "\"lychee\" = 8\","

paste0("\"", d, "\" = ", numbers, ",")
[1] "\"apple\" = 1,"  "\"banana\" = 5," "\"lychee\" = 8,"

paste(d, eply::unquote("="), eply::unquote(numbers))
[1] "apple = 1"  "banana = 5" "lychee = 8"

Can anyone help me to get the labels in the proper format?

These post did not help (for this specific problem):

• R paste two string with an equal sign between it : "stringA" = "stringB"

• Unquote strings in list R

I read a lot of other posts, but I can't seem to find what I need.