R help - May 2012 - Transfering data from R list to other document format

Dear users,
I want to transfer a list of results from R to some practical format, from
where I can continue manipulating, copying,... the values, e.g. :

list1 <- list("My first list", matrix(1:6, ncol=3), c(1,2,3,4,5,6)
)
# Imagining I forgot something and want to add it to the list like:
list1[[4]] <-  list(c(4,4,4), "This is it")
# Now I want to transfer the list to e.g. a text document:
lapply(L1, write, "test.txt", append=TRUE, ncolumns=100)

However, this does not work and I don't know why. Also I would be interested
in better options to get lists out of R (with tables I never had any
problems).

Thank you for your help and ideas! 

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Well, dput() can do this, but if your goal is exchange with other analysis
packages then you need to decide whether transforming to XML or to a tabular
form meets your needs better. For the latter, you might consider the ldply
function from the plyr package. You may benefit from reading the Data
Input/Output documentation for R.
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pannigh <pannigh at gwdg.de> wrote:
>Dear users,
>I want to transfer a list of results from R to some practical format,
>from
>where I can continue manipulating, copying,... the values, e.g. :
>
>list1 <- list("My first list", matrix(1:6, ncol=3),
c(1,2,3,4,5,6) )
># Imagining I forgot something and want to add it to the list like:
>list1[[4]] <-  list(c(4,4,4), "This is it")
># Now I want to transfer the list to e.g. a text document:
>lapply(L1, write, "test.txt", append=TRUE, ncolumns=100)
>
>However, this does not work and I don't know why. Also I would be
>interested
>in better options to get lists out of R (with tables I never had any
>problems).
>
>Thank you for your help and ideas! 
>
>--
>View this message in context:
>http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Transfering-data-from-R-list-to-other-document-format-tp4630057.html
>Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>______________________________________________
>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.

On May 15, 2012, at 6:56 AM, pannigh wrote:
> Dear users,
> I want to transfer a list of results from R to some practical  
> format, from
> where I can continue manipulating, copying,... the values, e.g. :
>
> list1 <- list("My first list", matrix(1:6, ncol=3),
c(1,2,3,4,5,6) )
> # Imagining I forgot something and want to add it to the list like:
> list1[[4]] <-  list(c(4,4,4), "This is it")
> # Now I want to transfer the list to e.g. a text document:
> lapply(L1, write, "test.txt", append=TRUE, ncolumns=100)
>
> However, this does not work and I don't know why.
Two reasons:
The glaringly obvious error is that you have constructed 'list1' and  
then called lapply with an argument of 'L1'.
The more difficult error to see is that 'write' will not accept a list  
of lists, which is what your fourth element. Using a recursive apply  
function can help. Try either on  of these:

 > rapply(list1, function(x) { cat(c(x, "\n"),
file="test.txt",
append=TRUE) })
NULL

 > rapply(list1, function(x) { write(x, file="test.txt",
append=TRUE) })
NULL
>

-- 

David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT