R: From A List, Build or Add To an Environment

list2env {base} | R Documentation

## From A List, Build or Add To an Environment

### Description

From a named `list x`, create an `environment` containing all list components as objects, or “multi-assign” from `x` into a pre-existing environment.

### Usage

    list2env(x, envir = NULL, parent = parent.frame(),
             hash = (length(x) > 100), size = max(29L, length(x)))

### Arguments

`x` | a `list`, where `names(x)` must not contain empty (`""`) elements.
`envir` | an `environment` or `NULL`.
`parent` | (for the case `envir = NULL`): a parent frame aka enclosing environment, see `new.env`.
`hash` | (for the case `envir = NULL`): logical indicating if the created environment should use hashing, see `new.env`.
`size` | (in the case `envir = NULL, hash = TRUE`): hash size, see `new.env`.

### Details

This will be very slow for large inputs unless hashing is used on the environment.

Environments must have uniquely named entries, but named lists need not: where the list has duplicate names it is the last element with the name that is used. Empty names throw an error.

### Value

An `environment`, either newly created (as by `new.env`) if the `envir` argument was `NULL`, otherwise the updated environment `envir`. Since environments are never duplicated, the argument `envir` is also changed.

### Author(s)

Martin Maechler

### See Also

`environment`, `new.env`, `as.environment`; further, `assign`.

The (semantical) “inverse”: `as.list.environment`.

### Examples

    L <- list(a = 1, b = 2:4, p = pi, ff = gl(3, 4, labels = LETTERS[1:3]))
    e <- list2env(L)
    ls(e)
    stopifnot(ls(e) == sort(names(L)),
              identical(L$b, e$b)) # "$" working for environments as for lists

    ## consistency, when we do the inverse:
    ll <- as.list(e)  # -> dispatching to the as.list.environment() method
    rbind(names(L), names(ll)) # not in the same order, typically,
                               # but the same content:
    stopifnot(identical(L [sort.list(names(L ))],
                        ll[sort.list(names(ll))]))

    ## now add to e -- can be seen as a fast "multi-assign":
    list2env(list(abc = LETTERS, note = "just an example",
                  df = data.frame(x = rnorm(20), y = rbinom(20, 1, pr = 0.2))),
             envir = e)
    utils::ls.str(e)

[Package base version 3.1.2 Index]