Access lapply index names inside FUN

Question

Is there a way to get the list index name in my lapply() function?

n = names(mylist)
lapply(mylist, function(list.elem) { cat(\"What is the name of this list         


        

Answer 1

Tommy's answer applies to named vectors but I got the idea you were interested in lists. And it seems as though he were doing an end-around because he was referencing "x" from the calling environment. This function uses only the parameters that were passed to the function and so makes no assumptions about the name of objects that were passed:

x <- list(a=11,b=12,c=13)
lapply(x, function(z) { attributes(deparse(substitute(z)))$names  } )
#--------
$a
NULL

$b
NULL

$c
NULL
#--------
 names( lapply(x, function(z) { attributes(deparse(substitute(z)))$names  } ))
#[1] "a" "b" "c"
 what_is_my_name <- function(ZZZ) return(deparse(substitute(ZZZ)))
 what_is_my_name(X)
#[1] "X"
what_is_my_name(ZZZ=this)
#[1] "this"
 exists("this")
#[1] FALSE