[R] Variable names AS variable names?

David Winsemius dwinsemius at comcast.net
Fri Feb 25 09:23:46 CET 2011


On Feb 25, 2011, at 1:55 AM, Noah Silverman wrote:

> How can I dynamically use a variable as the name for another variable?
>
> I realize this sounds cryptic, so an example is best:
>
> #Start with an array of "codes"
> codes <- c("a1", "b24", "q99")

Is there some reason not to use list(a1, b24, q99)? If not then:

lapply(codes, somefun)


>
> #Each code has a corresponding matrix (could be vector)
> a1 <- matrix(rnorm(100), nrow=10)
> b24 <- matrix(rnorm(100), nrow=10)
> q99 <- matrix(rnorm(100), nrow=10)
>
> #Now, I want to loop through all the codes and do something with  
> each matrix
> for(code in codes){
>    #here is where I'm stuck.  I don't want the value of code, but the
> variable who's name is the value of code
>
> }
>
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> -N
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at 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.

David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT



More information about the R-help mailing list