How to name a list object in R

Question

In R the objects of the list itself [1], [2] and [[3]] can't seem to be renamed. See:

my_df1 <- mtcars[1:10,]
my_df1 <- mtcars[11:20,]
my_df1 <- mtcars[21:30,]
my_list <- list(my_df1, my_df2, my_df3)

This gives me the following:

Is there a way to rename the [1] objects themselves? I find this a drawback of R. I am dealing with categories of data and want to be sure which category I am dealing with by labelling each object. Thanks

Try: `list(a=my_df1, b=my_df2, c=my_df3)` – GKi Aug 25 '21 at 10:11 — GKi, Aug 25 '21 at 10:11

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 25 '21 at 10:13

2

If you want to name the lists while creating them you can use tibble::lst

my_df1 <- mtcars[1:10,]
my_df2 <- mtcars[11:20,]
my_df3 <- mtcars[21:30,]
my_list <- tibble::lst(my_df1, my_df2, my_df3)

If the list is already created you can use names or setNames to name the list.

names(my_list) <- c('list1', 'list2', 'list3')

setNames(my_list, c('list1', 'list2', 'list3'))

answered Aug 25 '21 at 10:13

Ronak Shah

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Or `structure` which avoids a dependency on the stats package – Hong Ooi Aug 25 '21 at 10:29
Doing setNames(my_list[[1]], labels[1]) to just set the name of the first object, does not work. – Adel Aug 25 '21 at 10:36
Use `my_list[1] <- setNames(my_list[1], labels[1]) ` – Ronak Shah Aug 25 '21 at 10:40
Ok, I realized my real life example is different. So I will open a new issue. Thanks. This works in this case. – Adel Aug 25 '21 at 11:26

How to name a list object in R

1 Answers1