[R] convert multi dimensional array to list

[R. Michael Weylandt]

On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 2:54 PM, anto.r <anto.rajaa at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have an 4D named array (the result of recast() on a dataframe) and would
> like to convert it to a list with the names retained.
>
> Example:
>>my.df<-expand.grid(name=c("Alf","Que"), month=c("May","Jun"),
> year=c("2011","2012"))
>>my.df$tmax<-sample(15:20,4)
>>my.df$tmin<-sample(10:15,4)
>>my.df.melt=melt(my.df)
>>my.df.cast=cast(my.df.melt, year~name~month~variable)
>
> I want to convert it to a list so I can access the elements by name like
>>my.df.cast$tmax$May
> to get the corresponding year-name matrix
>
> This assuming, lists provide an easier way to handle this data. Does it?

I might actually stick with an array, but avoid the dollar sign syntax:

my.df.cast[,,"May",]

would be one way.

Cheers,
M


> Also, may be there is a way to get the list I want from my.df without going
> through the melt and cast.  Any suggestions are welcome.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Anto
>
> PS: I came across threads for converting list to array but not the other way
> round.
>
>
>
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