[R] creating named elements of lists on the fly

[Gabor Grothendieck]

Ben Shapiro <bshapiro-lists-R <at> getdown.org> writes:

: 
: HI Folks,
: 
: I'm trying to create a list with named elements. Only, I don't know the 
names of the elements a priori (they
: come from the data being calculated). Currently, my approach is to create an 
environment, then assign
: things to the environement, then as.list the environment to get a list. 
: 
: Running the code gives, for example:
: > e2 <- new.env(FALSE, NULL)
: > assign("dude", 123, env=e2)
: > assign("chick", 456, env=e2)
: > as.list(e2)
: Error in as.vector(x, "list") : cannot coerce to vector
: 
: Is this the best way to make a list like this? 
: 
: Thanks,
: Ben


If you need to add them one at a time then John Fox has
already provided an answer.  If you want to create it
all at once and you have the contents in a list and
the names in a vector like this:

nams <- letters[1:3]
contents <- list(1:3, 4:5, 6:9)

# then here are two ways:

# 1
mapply("{", nams, contents, SIMPLIFY = FALSE)

# 2
names(contents) <-  nams
contents

#  Actually in your example the elements are all homogeneous so
#  you could alternately use a vector to hold the results:

# 1a
contents <- c(1, 2, 3)
mapply("{", nams, contents)

# 2a
names(contents) <- nams
contents