How to remove "i.e." from "This has been identified, i.e., found." using regex in R

string <- "This has been identified, i.e., found."

I want to remove "i.e." from the string. However, using

> gsub("i.e.", "", string) 
[1] "This has been tified, , found."

also removes "iden" from "identified". How do I write a regex that specifically targets "i.e."? I think the periods in "i.e." are triggering another regex expression than what I intended.

>Solution :

Use fixed = TRUE, otherwise . is identified as a meta-character. You can also use i\\.e\\..

gsub("i.e.", "", string, fixed = TRUE) 
#[1] "This has been identified, , found."