[R] hashing using named lists

[ulas karaoz]

hi all,
I am trying to use named list to hash a bunch of vector by name, for 
instance:
test = list()
test$name = c(1,2,3)

the problem is that when i try to get the values back by using the 
name, the matching isn't done in an exact way, so
test$na is not NULL.

is there a way around this?
Why by default all.equal.list doesnt require an exact match?
How can I do hashing in R?

thanks.
ulas.