[R] write out list of lists with names

[Iain Gallagher]

Hello List

I have a list question. I'm doing some data wrangling for a colleague and I have nested list in the following format:

structure(list(MU10 = structure(c(0.80527905920989, 0.4350488707836, 
0.455195366623, 0.565174432205497, 0.208180556861924), .Names = c("MU.16", 
"MU.19", "MU.21", "mean", "sd")), MU11 = structure(c(0.56061565798878, 
0.65200918021661, 0.606312419102695, 0.0646249793238221), .Names = c("MU.21", 
"MU.22", "mean", "sd")), MU12 = structure(c(0.77265115449472, 
0.3925776107826, 0.38222435807226, 0.515817707783193, 0.222484520748552
), .Names = c("MU.14", "MU.20", "MU.23", "mean", "sd")), MU13 = structure(c(0.36360576458114, 
0.21396125968483, 0.288783512132985, 0.105814644179484), .Names = c("MU.20", 
"MU.22", "mean", "sd")), MU14 = structure(c(0.31692017862428, 
0.31692017862428, NA), .Names = c("MU.18", "mean", "sd")), MU15 = structure(c(0.57645424339545, 
0.82369227173036, 0.700073257562905, 0.174823686402807), .Names = c("MU.18", 
"MU.22", "mean", "sd"))), .Names = c("MU10", "MU11", "MU12", 
"MU13", "MU14", "MU15"))

I would like to write this to a text file in the form e.g. (each x is a value):

MU10
MU.16  MU.19  MU.21  mean  sd
x  x  x  x  x  
MU11
MU.21  MU.22 mean sd
x  x  x  x

Where each list element is on a new block of three rows.

After consulting Google I came across the following:

fnlist <- function(x, fil){ 
z <- deparse(substitute(x))
cat(z, "\n", file = fil)
nams <- names(x)

for (i in seq_along(x) ){ cat(nams[i], "\n", x[[i]], "\n",file = fil, append = TRUE) }
}

fnlist(holdList, 'res.txt')

However this doesn't print the names within each sub list.

Can anyone advise?

Thanks

Iain


R version 2.15.1 (2012-06-22)
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)

locale:
 [1] LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8       LC_NUMERIC=C              
 [3] LC_TIME=en_GB.UTF-8        LC_COLLATE=en_GB.UTF-8    
 [5] LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8    LC_MESSAGES=en_GB.UTF-8   
 [7] LC_PAPER=C                 LC_NAME=C                 
 [9] LC_ADDRESS=C               LC_TELEPHONE=C            
[11] LC_MEASUREMENT=en_GB.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C       

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     

other attached packages:
[1] plyr_1.7.1    gsubfn_0.6-5  proto_0.3-9.2

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] tcltk_2.15.1 tools_2.15.1





Iain