write out list of lists with names

cc <- capture.output(ll) ## ll is your list object
kk <- cc[cc!= ""] ## remove blank lines
kk <- gsub("\\$", "", kk) ## remove '$' from names
writeLines(kk)

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-
project.org] On Behalf Of Iain Gallagher
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 9:31 AM
To: r-help
Subject: [R] write out list of lists with names



Hello List

I have a list question. I'm doing some data wrangling for a colleague
and I have nested list in the following format:

structure(list(MU10 = structure(c(0.80527905920989, 0.4350488707836,
0.455195366623, 0.565174432205497, 0.208180556861924), .Names =
c("MU.16",
"MU.19", "MU.21", "mean", "sd")), MU11 = structure(c(0.56061565798878,
0.65200918021661, 0.606312419102695, 0.0646249793238221), .Names =
c("MU.21",
"MU.22", "mean", "sd")), MU12 = structure(c(0.77265115449472,
0.3925776107826, 0.38222435807226, 0.515817707783193, 0.222484520748552
), .Names = c("MU.14", "MU.20", "MU.23", "mean", "sd")), MU13 =
structure(c(0.36360576458114,
0.21396125968483, 0.288783512132985, 0.105814644179484), .Names =
c("MU.20",
"MU.22", "mean", "sd")), MU14 = structure(c(0.31692017862428,
0.31692017862428, NA), .Names = c("MU.18", "mean", "sd")), MU15 =
structure(c(0.57645424339545,
0.82369227173036, 0.700073257562905, 0.174823686402807), .Names =
c("MU.18",
"MU.22", "mean", "sd"))), .Names = c("MU10", "MU11", "MU12",
"MU13", "MU14", "MU15"))

I would like to write this to a text file in the form e.g. (each x is a
value):

MU10
MU.16? MU.19? MU.21? mean? sd
x? x? x? x? x
MU11
MU.21? MU.22 mean sd
x? x? x? x

Where each list element is on a new block of three rows.

After consulting Google I came across the following:

fnlist <- function(x, fil){
z <- deparse(substitute(x))
cat(z, "\n", file = fil)
nams <- names(x)

for (i in seq_along(x) ){ cat(nams[i], "\n", x[[i]], "\n",file = fil,
append = TRUE) }
}

fnlist(holdList, 'res.txt')

However this doesn't print the names within each sub list.

Can anyone advise?

Thanks

Iain


R version 2.15.1 (2012-06-22)
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)

locale:
?[1] LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8?????? LC_NUMERIC=C
?[3] LC_TIME=en_GB.UTF-8??????? LC_COLLATE=en_GB.UTF-8
?[5] LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8??? LC_MESSAGES=en_GB.UTF-8
?[7] LC_PAPER=C???????????????? LC_NAME=C
?[9] LC_ADDRESS=C?????????????? LC_TELEPHONE=C
[11] LC_MEASUREMENT=en_GB.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C

attached base packages:
[1] stats???? graphics? grDevices utils???? datasets? methods
base

other attached packages:
[1] plyr_1.7.1??? gsubfn_0.6-5? proto_0.3-9.2

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] tcltk_2.15.1 tools_2.15.1





Iain