[R] assigning a list item using a variable for a name

[RSVP]

I have a list.

my.list <- list(Tom=c(1,2,3), Dick=c(4,5,6), Harry=c(7,8,9)) 

I assign one of the names of the list to a variable.

name <- "Harry"

I can access the value of the list using the variable as follows:

 eval(parse(text=paste("my.list$", name, sep="")))

[1] 7 8 9

But how do I change the value of my.list$Harry using the variable name? This
doesn't work:

 eval(parse(text=paste("my.list$", name, sep=""))) <- c(1,4,7)

Error in eval(parse(text = paste("my.list$", name, sep = ""))) <- c(1,  : 
  target of assignment expands to non-language object

The following only replaces the first element of my.list$Harry

 my.list[name] <- c(1,4,7)
Warning message:
In my.list[name] <- c(1, 4, 7) :
  number of items to replace is not a multiple of replacement length

> my.list[name]
$Harry
[1] 1

Any suggestions?

Thanks.





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