Converting a list to a data frame

On Wed, 2 May 2018, Kevin E. Thorpe wrote:

I suspect this is pretty easy, but I'm having trouble figuring it out. 
Basically, I have a list of data frames such as the following example:

list(A=data.frame(x=1:2, y=3:4),B=data.frame(x=5:6,y=7:8))

I would like to turn this into  data frame where the list elements are 
essentially rbind'ed together and the element name becomes a new variable. 
For example, I would like to turn the list above into a data frame that 
looks like this:

data.frame(type=c("A","A","B","B"),x=c(1:2,5:6),y=c(3:4,7:8))

Appreciate any pointers.

Kevin

Hi, Kevin.

Here's code that will generate your desired data frame.

# List as provided
thelist <- list(A=data.frame(x=1:2, y=3:4),B=data.frame(x=5:6,y=7:8))
thelist

# Creating the type-vector
type <- c()
for(i in 1:length(thelist)){
 type <- c(type, rep(names(thelist)[i], sapply(thelist, nrow)[i]))
}

# Creating the data frame
df <- data.frame(type, do.call(rbind.data.frame, c(thelist, make.row.names = 
FALSE)))
df


Kind regards,
Eivind K. Dovik
Bergen, NO

-- 
Kevin E. Thorpe
Head of Biostatistics,  Applied Health Research Centre (AHRC)
Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital
Assistant Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
University of Toronto
email: kevin.thorpe at utoronto.ca  Tel: 416.864.5776  Fax: 416.864.3016