R: Recursively Apply a Function to a List

rapply {base} | R Documentation

## Recursively Apply a Function to a List

### Description

`rapply` is a recursive version of `lapply`.

### Usage

    rapply(object, f, classes = "ANY", deflt = NULL,
           how = c("unlist", "replace", "list"), ...)

### Arguments

`object` | A list.
`f` | A function of a single argument.
`classes` | A character vector of `class` names, or `"ANY"` to match any class.
`deflt` | The default result (not used if `how = "replace"`).
`how` | A character string matching the three possibilities given: see ‘Details’.
`...` | additional arguments passed to the call to `f`.

### Details

This function has two basic modes. If `how = "replace"`, each element of the list which is not itself a list and has a class included in `classes` is replaced by the result of applying `f` to the element.

If the mode is `how = "list"` or `how = "unlist"`, the list is copied, all non-list elements which have a class included in `classes` are replaced by the result of applying `f` to the element and all others are replaced by `deflt`. Finally, if `how = "unlist"`, `unlist(recursive = TRUE)` is called on the result.

The semantics differ in detail from `lapply`: in particular the arguments are evaluated before calling the C code.

### Value

If `how = "unlist"`, a vector, otherwise a list of similar structure to `object`.

### References

Chambers, J. A. (1998) Programming with Data. Springer.
(`rapply` is only described briefly there.)

### See Also

`lapply`, `dendrapply`.

### Examples

    X <- list(list(a=pi, b=list(c=1:1)), d="a test")
    rapply(X, function(x) x, how="replace")
    rapply(X, sqrt, classes="numeric", how="replace")
    rapply(X, nchar, classes="character",
           deflt = as.integer(NA), how="list")
    rapply(X, nchar, classes="character",
           deflt = as.integer(NA), how="unlist")
    rapply(X, nchar, classes="character", how="unlist")
    rapply(X, log, classes="numeric", how="replace", base=2)

[Package base version 2.15.1 Index]