4 Easy Ways to Convert List to String in R

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There are the following methods to convert the list to a string in R.

  1. Using the “paste()” function
  2. Using the “toString()” function
  3. Using “do.call()” and “paste()” functions
  4. Using the “stri_paste()” function

Method 1: Using paste() function in R

The paste()  is a built-in R function that converts input arguments to character strings and concatenates them. It accepts two arguments: A list and collapse and returns the string.

Example

listA <- list("M", "I", "L", "L", "I", "E")

str <- paste(listA, collapse = ", ")

str

Output

[1] "M, I, L, L, I, E"

You can check the type of return variable from the paste() function using the typeof() function.

listA <- list("M", "I", "L", "L", "I", "E")
str <- paste(listA, collapse = ", ")
str
typeof(str)

Output

[1] "M, I, L, L, I, E"
[1] "character"

You can see that the paste() function returns the character string.

Method 2: Using the toString() function in R

You can use the toString() function to convert the list to a string in R. The toString() is a built-in function that converts an object to a character string.

Example

listA <- list("M", "I", "L", "L", "I", "E")
str <- toString(listA)
str
typeof(str)

Output

[1] "M, I, L, L, I, E"
[1] "character"

Method 3: Using do.call() and paste() functions

You can also use do.call() function that will accept the paste() function and use the “collapse” argument to convert list elements into a string.

Example

listA <- list("M", "I", "L", "L", "I", "E")

do.call(paste, c(listA, collapse = " "))

Output

[1] "M I L L I E"

Method 4: Using the stri_paste() function

The stri_paste() function is part of the stringi package in R, providing useful tools for working with strings. It concatenates (joins together) multiple strings into a single string.

If the “stringi” package is not installed on your system, you must install the “stringi” package.

Example

library("stringi")

listA <- list("M", "I", "L", "L", "I", "E")

stri_paste(unlist(listA), collapse = " ")

Output

[1] "M I L L I E"

The stri_paste() function is then used to concatenate the strings in listA into a single string.

We then used the unlist() function to convert the list into a character vector. This is necessary because the stri_paste() function expects its arguments to be vectors, not lists.

The collapse argument is used to specify the separator that should be used between the concatenated strings. In this case, we set it to a space character so that the resulting string will have a space between each element.

Conclusion

To convert a list to a string in R, you can use the “paste()”, “toString()”, “do.call() and paste()”, or “stri_paste()” methods.

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