CODEWITHSUNDEEP
r
Kim Stacks
Kim Stacks

Reputation: 10822

What data structure can I use to store some data tables and using keys like a dictionary in R?

Lets say I have 2 data tables:

data_table1
data_table2

I want to be able to store them in a structure and with keys pointing to them so that I can easily extract them as needed.

'data_table1' is the key for datatable1

for e.g.

How do I do this in R and what structure should I use?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 65

Answers (1)

sebkopf
sebkopf

Reputation: 2375

To elaborate on ilir's suggestion with an example, if you have two differently structured data.frames, you can use a list like so:

df1 <- data.frame(id = 1:5, data = runif(5))
df2 <- data.frame(id = 1:3, data = sample(letters, 3))

alldata <- list(data_table1 = df1, data_table2 = df2)

alldata$data_table1 # access df1
alldata$data_table2 # access df2

If your data frames have the same structure, you could combine them for example with an extra key column (here table) like so:

df1 <- data.frame(table = "data_table1", id = 1:5, data = runif(5))
df2 <- data.frame(table = "data_table2", id = 1:3, data = runif(3))

alldata <- rbind(df1, df2)

subset(alldata, table == "data_table1") # access df1
subset(alldata, table == "data_table2") # access df2

Upvotes: 1

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