R help - Jul 2007 - accessing list components with a variable

Let's say I have a list called the_list consisting of three components:
the_list$component_1
the_list$component_2
the_list$component_3

Now, I want to access it using a variable called comp.
comp <- "component_1"

I'm looking for some function that let's me do this:
unknown_function(the_list, comp)

Which should do the same thing as:
the_list$component_1

Any ideas?  I'd be open to other ways of doing this, too.  I explored  
this way, but it didn't seem to get me anywhere:
the_list$"component_1"

I possibly could have gotten further along if I knew how to do  
evaluation in R.

Thanks,
David

the_list[[comp]]

"David C. James" <dj at davidcjames.com> writes:
> Let's say I have a list called the_list consisting of three components:
> the_list$component_1
> the_list$component_2
> the_list$component_3
> 
> Now, I want to access it using a variable called comp.
> comp <- "component_1"
> 
> I'm looking for some function that let's me do this:
> unknown_function(the_list, comp)
> 
> Which should do the same thing as:
> the_list$component_1
> 
> Any ideas?  I'd be open to other ways of doing this, too.  I explored  
> this way, but it didn't seem to get me anywhere:
> the_list$"component_1"
> 
> I possibly could have gotten further along if I knew how to do  
> evaluation in R.
> 
> Thanks,
> David
> 
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-- 
Jeff