How to extract lower and upper bound in numeric format from a confidence interval string? : <p>Suppose a vector including some confidence intervals as below</p>

<pre><code>confint &lt;- c("[0.741 ; 2.233]", "[263.917 ; 402.154]", "[12.788 ; 17.975]", "[0.680 ; 2.450]", "[0.650 ; 1.827]", "[0.719 ; 2.190]")
</code></pre>

<p>I want to have two new vectors one including the lower Limits in numeric format as </p>

<pre><code>lower &lt;- c(0.741, 263.917, 12.788, 0.680, 0.650 , 0.719)
</code></pre>

<p>and othe including the upper Limits in numeric format like</p>

<pre><code>upper &lt;- c(2.233, 402.154, 17.975, 2.450, 1.827, 2.190)
</code></pre>
