title: How would I remove the text before the initial period, the initial period itself and text after final period in a string?
body: <p>I need to remove the text before the leading period (as well as the leading period) and the text following the last period from a string.</p>
  
  <p>Given this string for example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>"ABCD.EF.GH.IJKL.MN"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'd like to get the output:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[1] "IJKL"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I have tried the following:</p>
  
  <pre><code>split_string &lt;- sub("^.*?\\.","", string)
  
  split_string &lt;- sub("^\\.+|\\.[^.]*$", "", string)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I believe I have it working for the period and text after for that string output I want. However, the first line needs to be executed multiple times to remove the text before that period in question e.g. '.I'.</p>