[R] Combined variable names

[Richard A. O'Keefe]

Tobias Muhlhofer <t.muhlhofer at lse.ac.uk> wrote:
	I am trying to define a large number of variables through a loop
	construct.
	
He wants to do
	for (i in 1:100) {
	    assign(paste("v", i, sep=""), ....something or other...)
	}

This is, of course, a FAQ.  It's such a FAQ that I must have seen it
once a day for the last several days.

What I want to know is *WHY* people are doing this?
What, precisely, does it buy you to have variables called v1...v100
rather than variables called v[[1]]...v[[100]]?
Apart from persistent inconvenience, that is?

What, really, is wrong with

    v <- lapply(1:100, function (i) ....something or other...)