Assign multiple array of vectors using for-loop and assign in R

Question

I was wondering which are the posibilities of vectorizing an array of vector using the for-loop.
The general idea is:

Vector names
Vector values
Assign each values from 2 in each 1

As and example I've tried:

Names <- c('Arnold','Jhon' ,'Jim','Jason')`  
Surnames <- c('Palmer','Kramer' ,'Carrey','Momoa')`    
for (Name in Names){
    for (Surname in Surname){
      Name <- Surname
   }
}

What I'm expecting is to create multiple vector named from each individual value form the chracter string Names and each one of this new individual vectors assigned with each surname in Surnames. This would be like:

>Arnold
[1] "Palmer"
>Jhon
[1] "Kramer"

Definitely this isn't working, and I've been searching widebroad in the web, and although there are similar results, there is one that could be, with some modifications obviously, applied to my model. So if you know any other posted questions or any solution I'd be very gladly with you.

Can you provide an example of your desired output. Since R functions are already vectorized, you can just use names(Surnames) <- Names and print(Surnames). No for-loop needed. — Yifu Yan
– Yifu Yan, Commented Sep 11, 2019 at 21:59
This is not a good way of thinking about variables and assigning them values in R. For example, what happens if you have two Arnolds? It's much better to store Name and Surname in some form of data structure, e.g. a list or a data.frame. Extracting entries then comes down to filtering & selecting relevant entries (e.g. through matching entries, or joining with information from another data.frame). Don't use assign, as suggested in the answer below. — Maurits Evers
– Maurits Evers, Commented Sep 11, 2019 at 22:09
thanks for the advice, but I only have non repeated values in vector names so assign function is going to work just fine, but I'll have what you are suggesting in mind in the future if some of my values are repeated. — Paulo Cecco
– Paulo Cecco, Commented Sep 11, 2019 at 22:14

MatthewR · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-11 22:00:14Z

3

I think you had problems in your loop- I edited so you are looping through a numeric vector. Plus I think the function you were looking for was assign

Names <- c('Arnold','Jhon' ,'Jim','Jason')
Surnames <- c('Palmer','Kramer' ,'Carrey','Momoa')
for( i in 1:length( Names) ){

      assign( Names[i] , Surnames[i] )

}

Arnold

answered Sep 11, 2019 at 22:00

MatthewR

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3 Comments

Paulo Cecco Over a year ago

Perfect that was what I need it, thank you a lot, I'll edit the question and marked as solved it.

Maurits Evers Over a year ago

@PauloCecco Please read Why is using assign bad?; this is not what you should be doing.

MatthewR Over a year ago

@MauritsEvers is right, this isn't the safest programming.

Orlando Sabogal · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-11 22:14:31Z

0

You can create a data.frame and then use the attach() function

Names <- c('Arnold','Jhon' ,'Jim','Jason')  
Surnames <- c('Palmer','Kramer' ,'Carrey','Momoa')

MyData <- rep(0,length(Names))
dim(MyData) <- c(1,length(Names))
MyData <- as.data.frame(MyData)

names(MyData) <- Names
MyData[1,] <- Surnames

attach(MyData) #This is the key
Arnold
Jhon
Jim
Jason

answered Sep 11, 2019 at 22:14

Orlando Sabogal

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