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Loop over a list

Looping over a list is just as easy and convenient as looping over a vector. There are again two different approaches here:

primes_list <- list(2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13)

# loop version 1
for (p in primes_list) {
  print(p)
}

# loop version 2
for (i in 1:length(primes_list)) {
  print(primes_list[[i]])
}

Notice that you need double square brackets - [[ ]] - to select the list elements in loop version 2.

Suppose you have a list of all sorts of information on New York City: its population size, the names of the boroughs, and whether it is the capital of the United States. We've already defined a list nyc containing this information (source: Wikipedia).

This is a part of the course

“Intermediate R”

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Exercise instructions

As in the previous exercise, loop over the nyc list in two different ways to print its elements:

  • Loop directly over the nyc list (loop version 1).
  • Define a looping index and do subsetting using double brackets (loop version 2).

Hands-on interactive exercise

Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.

# The nyc list is already specified
nyc <- list(pop = 8405837, 
            boroughs = c("Manhattan", "Bronx", "Brooklyn", "Queens", "Staten Island"), 
            capital = FALSE)

# Loop version 1




# Loop version 2

This exercise is part of the course

Intermediate R

BeginnerSkill Level
4.5+
120 reviews

Continue your journey to becoming an R ninja by learning about conditional statements, loops, and vector functions.

Chapter 1: Conditionals and Control Flow

In this chapter, you'll learn about relational operators for comparing R objects, and logical operators like "and" and "or" for combining TRUE and FALSE values. Then, you'll use this knowledge to build conditional statements.

Exercise 1: Relational OperatorsExercise 2: EqualityExercise 3: Greater and less thanExercise 4: Compare vectorsExercise 5: Compare matricesExercise 6: Logical OperatorsExercise 7: & and |Exercise 8: & and | (2)Exercise 9: Reverse the result: !Exercise 10: Blend it all togetherExercise 11: Conditional StatementsExercise 12: The if statementExercise 13: Add an elseExercise 14: Customize further: else ifExercise 15: Else if 2.0Exercise 16: Take control!

Chapter 2: Loops

Loops can come in handy on numerous occasions. While loops are like repeated if statements, the for loop is designed to iterate over all elements in a sequence. Learn about them in this chapter.

Exercise 1: While loopExercise 2: Write a while loopExercise 3: Throw in more conditionalsExercise 4: Stop the while loop: breakExercise 5: Build a while loop from scratchExercise 6: For loopExercise 7: Loop over a vectorExercise 8: Loop over a list
Exercise 9: Loop over a matrixExercise 10: Mix it up with control flowExercise 11: Next, you break itExercise 12: Build a for loop from scratch

Chapter 3: Functions

Chapter 4: The apply family

Chapter 5: Utilities

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