creating dataframe from a nested list

Question

What is the optimum way for creating a data frame from a nested list.

#installing package
installed.packages("qdap")
#loading qdap package
library("qdap")

# Finding synonyms from the below function which gives a list.
data <- synonyms("power")

# Converting list to dataframe
plyr::ldply(data, cbind)

t(plyr::ldply(data, rbind))

At last, I would like to create multiple data frame. from the output of:

synonyms(c("taste","company","power"))

list output looks alike using dput()

structure(list(power.def_1 = c("ability", "capability", "capacity", 
"competence", "competency", "faculty", "potential"), power.def_2 = c("brawn", 
"energy", "force", "forcefulness", "intensity", "might", "muscle", 
"potency", "strength", "vigour", "weight"), power.def_3 = c("ascendancy", 
"authority", "bottom", "command", "control", "dominance", "domination", 
"dominion", "influence", "mastery", "rule", "sovereignty", "supremacy", 
"sway"), power.def_4 = c("authority", "authorization", "licence", 
"prerogative", "privilege", "right", "warrant")), .Names = c("power.def_1", 
"power.def_2", "power.def_3", "power.def_4"))

everyone that wants to help you needs to install it, which puts me off from answering questions like that. — pogibas
– pogibas, Commented Jun 27, 2018 at 8:32
@PoGibas i've included the list structure for your reference. Thanks in advance for your help. — nikki
– nikki, Commented Jun 27, 2018 at 8:40
Ok. probably not. Would be best if you were clearer about input and expected output. — s_baldur
– s_baldur, Commented Jun 27, 2018 at 10:18

moodymudskipper · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-27 09:41:21Z

1

Would it work like this ?

lapply(l, function(li)
  data.frame(lapply(li,'length<-',max(lengths(li)))))

# [[1]]
# power.def_1  power.def_2 power.def_3   power.def_4
# 1      ability        brawn  ascendancy     authority
# 2   capability       energy   authority authorization
# 3     capacity        force      bottom       licence
# 4   competence forcefulness     command   prerogative
# 5   competency    intensity     control     privilege
# 6      faculty        might   dominance         right
# 7    potential       muscle  domination       warrant
# 8         <NA>      potency    dominion          <NA>
# 9         <NA>     strength   influence          <NA>
# 10        <NA>       vigour     mastery          <NA>
# 11        <NA>       weight        rule          <NA>
# 12        <NA>         <NA> sovereignty          <NA>
# 13        <NA>         <NA>   supremacy          <NA>
# 14        <NA>         <NA>        sway          <NA>

...

More compact using purrr :

library(purrr)
map(l,~map_dfc(.,`length<-`,max(lengths(.))))

data

l1 <- structure(list(power.def_1 = c("ability", "capability", "capacity", 
                                    "competence", "competency", "faculty", "potential"), power.def_2 = c("brawn", 
                                                                                                         "energy", "force", "forcefulness", "intensity", "might", "muscle", 
                                                                                                         "potency", "strength", "vigour", "weight"), power.def_3 = c("ascendancy", 
                                                                                                                                                                     "authority", "bottom", "command", "control", "dominance", "domination", 
                                                                                                                                                                     "dominion", "influence", "mastery", "rule", "sovereignty", "supremacy", 
                                                                                                                                                                     "sway"), power.def_4 = c("authority", "authorization", "licence", 
                                                                                                                                                                                              "prerogative", "privilege", "right", "warrant")), .Names = c("power.def_1", 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           "power.def_2", "power.def_3", "power.def_4"))

l <- list(l1,l1)

edited Jun 27, 2018 at 9:41

answered Jun 27, 2018 at 8:55

moodymudskipper

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4 Comments

nikki Over a year ago

Thanks for your help here, however for every sublist i would like to create a different data frame instead of rowbind. sorry if i was not clear at the beginning.however got some hint from your solution.

moodymudskipper Over a year ago

so if you just remove the do.call(rbind, you get what you want ?

nikki Over a year ago

correct, and running the nested list in a loop by assigning n no of dataframes

moodymudskipper Over a year ago

I updated my answer to remove the row binding, I don't understand your last comment though and cannot install the qdap package. If you need futher help please elaborate.

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