Put multiple data frames into list (smart way) [duplicate]

Answer 1

By far the easiest solution would be to put the data.frame's into a list where you create them. However, assuming you have a character list of object names:

list_df = lapply(list_object_names, get)

where you could construct you list like this (example for 10 objects):

list_object_names = sprintf("data_frame%s", 1:10)

or get all the objects in your current workspace into a list:

list_df = lapply(ls(), get)
names(list_df) = ls()

Answer 2

You can use ls() with get as follows:

l.df <- lapply(ls(), function(x) if (class(get(x)) == "data.frame") get(x))

This'll load all data.frames from your current environment workspace.

Alternatively, as @agstudy suggests, you can use pattern to load just the data.frames you require.

l.df <- lapply(ls(pattern="df[0-9]+"), function(x) get(x))

Loads all data.frames in current environment that begins with df followed by 1 to any amount of numbers.

Answer 3

You can use ls with a specific pattern for example. For example:

some data.frames:

data.frame1 <- data.frame()
data.frame2 <- data.frame()
data.frame3 <- data.frame()
data.frame4 <- data.frame()

list(ls(pattern='data.fra*'))
[[1]]
[1] "data.frame1" "data.frame2" "data.frame3" "data.frame4"