Convert List to Vector in R (2 Examples)
This article explains how to convert a list to a vector object in the R programming language.
The article consists of this content:
Let’s just jump right in:
Creation of Example Data
At the start, we’ll have to create some data that we can use in the following examples:
my_list <- list(L1 = 5, # Create example list L2 = 8, L3 = 1, L4 = 5, L5 = 3) my_list # Print example list # $L1 # [1] 5 # # $L2 # [1] 8 # # $L3 # [1] 1 # # $L4 # [1] 5 # # $L5 # [1] 3 #
The previous output of the RStudio console shows that our example list contains five list elements with list names.
Example 1: Converting List to Vector Using unlist() Function
The following R syntax illustrates how to apply the unlist function to convert our list to a vector object.
Have a look at the following R code and its output:
my_vector1 <- unlist(my_list) # Apply unlist function my_vector1 # Print vector # L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 # 5 8 1 5 3
You can see based on the output in the RStudio console that we have converted our list to a named vector object.
Would you like to get rid of the names? Then keep on reading!
Example 2: Converting List to Vector without Names Using unlist() Function & use.names Argument
The R programming syntax below shows how to extract only the values when converting a list to a vector object.
For this, we have to set the use.names argument within the unlist function to be equal to FALSE:
my_vector2 <- unlist(my_list, use.names = FALSE) # Apply unlist & use.names my_vector2 # Print vector # [1] 5 8 1 5 3
As you can see we have converted our list to an unnamed vector containing only of the numbers that are contained in our list.
Video & Further Resources
In case you need more information on the R programming code of this tutorial, I recommend having a look at the following video of my YouTube channel. In the video, I’m explaining the contents of this page.
Furthermore, you may read the related articles on this homepage.
- Convert Data Frame Row to Vector
- Convert Matrix to Vector in R
- Convert Data Frame Column to Vector
- Convert Vector to List in R
- R Programming Language
Summary: This article has shown how to convert lists to vectors in R programming. In case you have additional questions, let me know in the comments.