How to Convert a List to a dataframe in R

as_tibble

as.data.frame

R Function

Published

September 12, 2021

List data structure in R is a useful structure store different data types. In this tutorial, we will learn how to convert a list into a dataframe. Here we will assume that the list has multiple vectors of same size.

Convert a list to a dataframe

Creating a list with vectors of equal sizes

Let us get started by create an example list with two variables of equal length.

list_of_equalsize  
## 1 a         1
## 2 b         2
## 3 c         3

Note that the examples above can convert when the list have vectors of same size and will not work if they differ in lengths. To illustrate that let us make a list with unequal size vectors.

as.tibble(list_of_equalsize)
list_of_unequals <- list(id = letters[1:4],
                       col1 = 1:3)
list_of_unequals

list_of_unequals <- list(id = letters[1:4],
                       col1 = 1:3)

list_of_unequals
## $id
## [1] "a" "b" "c" "d"
## 
## $col1
## [1] 1 2 3

If we try to convert the list with unequal vector size, we would get the following error.

as.data.frame(list_of_unequals)

Error in (function (..., row.names = NULL, check.rows = FALSE, check.names = TRUE, : arguments imply differing number of rows: 4, 3

---
title: "How to Convert a List to a dataframe in R"
date: 2021-09-12
categories: ['as_tibble', 'as.data.frame', 'R Function']
format:
  html:
    code-fold: false
    code-tools: true
---

List data structure in R is a useful structure store different data types.  In this tutorial, we will learn how to convert a list into a dataframe. Here we will assume that the list has multiple vectors of same size.

![Convert a list to a dataframe](https://rstats101.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/list_to_dataframe_R.png) Convert a list to a dataframe

###  Creating a list with vectors of equal sizes
Let us get started by create an example list with two variables of equal length.

```r
list_of_equalsize  
## 1 a         1
## 2 b         2
## 3 c         3
```

Note that the examples above can convert when the list have vectors of same size and will not work if they differ in lengths. To illustrate that let us make a list with unequal size vectors. 
```r
as.tibble(list_of_equalsize)
list_of_unequals <- list(id = letters[1:4],
                       col1 = 1:3)
list_of_unequals
```

```r
list_of_unequals <- list(id = letters[1:4],
                       col1 = 1:3)
```

```r
list_of_unequals
## $id
## [1] "a" "b" "c" "d"
## 
## $col1
## [1] 1 2 3
```

If we try to convert the list with unequal vector size, we would get the following error.

```r
as.data.frame(list_of_unequals)

Error in (function (..., row.names = NULL, check.rows = FALSE, check.names = TRUE, : arguments imply differing number of rows: 4, 3
```