Maximum number of patterns and speed in grep

Thanks, I see that it is working in the sample data. My data, however, gives
me an error message:

data <- strapplyc(text, batch[[l]])
Error in structure(.External("dotTcl", ..., PACKAGE = "tcltk"), class =
"tclObj") :
  [tcl] couldn't compile regular expression pattern: parentheses () not
balanced.

batch[[l]] is similar to your "re" string except that there is a larger
variety of characters. I haven't been able to figure out which characters
are causing trouble here. Any thoughts?

Thank you very much.

Math