In general, if the data frames are all related then it is best to keep them together in a list like you have. But if you want to change the names of the component data frames then you can use a loop, or sometimes better use the lapply function. Here is a basic example:
tmp <- list( df1=data.frame(x=1:10, y=rnorm(10)), df2=data.frame(x=1:100, y=rnorm(100)), df3=data.frame(x=1:1000, y=rnorm(1000))) str(tmp) tmp <- lapply( tmp, function(x){ names(x)[1] <- 'xx';x}) str(tmp) -- Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D. Statistical Data Center Intermountain Healthcare greg.s...@imail.org 801.408.8111 > -----Original Message----- > From: r-help-boun...@r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces@r- > project.org] On Behalf Of tomtomme > Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2011 1:24 PM > To: r-help@r-project.org > Subject: [R] accessing names of lists in a list > > After importing multiple files to data.frames in R, I want to rename > all > their columns and do other operations with them. The data.frame names > are > not continuous like 1, 3, 4, 6. > I could not find a way of creating a list of the data.frames and loop > this > and ended up putting them into a list first: > > # get all objects > all.obj = sapply(ls(), get) > # get data frames > dfrs = all.obj[sapply(all.obj, is.data.frame)] > > but then I get lists within lists: > > structure(list(`1` = structure(list(Datum = structure(c(... > > my problem now is how to access the inner list, for example to rename > the > "Datum" to "date". The following changes only the outer list: > > names(dfrs) <- c("date", "time", "temp","") > > with the result: > structure(list(date = structure(list(Datum = structure(c(... > > Or isn“t there a way to avoid the list and just loop through the > data.frames > of your workspace regardless of number and naming of the data.frames > and > thus apply different operations on them like the renaming of the > columns? > Many thanks! > > -- > View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/accessing- > names-of-lists-in-a-list-tp3649750p3649750.html > Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting- > guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.