Assign names to variable using regular expression in R

Question

So I have a bunch of variables in my workspace. I want to assign a subset of them to a new variable, so I can easily run functions on this subset:

workspace:

...
group10
group40
location40
test

desired assignment:

groupList <- list(group10,group40, ...)

intended regular expression:

^group[0-9]+

Any ideas?

Do you want to assign the names "group10" and "group40" to a new variable, or the values associated with them? — GSee
– GSee, Commented Aug 28, 2012 at 23:32

GSee · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-28 23:34:01Z

2

ls accepts a pattern argument:

group10 <- group40 <- location40 <- test <- NA
mysub <- ls(pattern="^group[0-9]+")
mysub
#[1] "group10" "group40"

You can use lapply to loop over the list of variable names and get their values

groupList <- lapply(mysub, get)

or, in one line

groupList <- lapply(ls(pattern="^group[0-9]+"), get)

answered Aug 28, 2012 at 23:28

GSee

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1 Comment

Oh, I wasn't aware of get. Thanks, mate!