\begin{Schunk}
\begin{Sinput}
 x <- "40:20"
 strsplit(x, ":")
\end{Sinput}
\begin{Soutput}
[[1]]
[1] "40" "20"
\end{Soutput}
\begin{Sinput}
 ## It is wrapped in an R list
 unlist(strsplit(x, ":"))
\end{Sinput}
\begin{Soutput}
[1] "40" "20"
\end{Soutput}
\begin{Sinput}
 ## It is still characters, need numbers
 as.numeric(unlist(strsplit(x, ":")))
\end{Sinput}
\begin{Soutput}
[1] 40 20
\end{Soutput}
\end{Schunk}
