Question

I’m creating a list of plots (by ggplot2) using lapply

let’s say I have this function

plot <- function(x){
  ggplot(x,aes(x=timepoints,means)) + 
       geom_point() + 
       geom_line() +
       scale_x_continuous(name='some name') +
       scale_y_continuous(name='another name') +
       geom_errorbar(aes(ymin=means-stderrs,ymax=means+stderrs),width=2) + 
       opts(title = names(x))    
}                 

I’m going to loop this through a list of data frames, here is an example of two data frames within the list:

$name1

   means    stderrs        timepoints
1  603.784863 289.952382       0
2  120.00     99.000           20
$name2
   means   stderrs
1  17.425819  5.204339         0
2  25.9       8.0              20

My problem:
the names(x) part of my ggplot function will name each plot ‘means’ as opposed to the actual name of that data frame (e.g. name1,name2)
the function is in list[[i]] and I want the the name of that actual data frame, which would be names(list[i]).

question:
is there a way to refer to an outer layer in the list, so to speak? or is there an easier way to get a list of these plots w/ their respective names?

Answer 1

It’s not pretty but it works.

plot2 <- function(x, title){
  ggplot(x,aes(x=timepoints,means)) + 
      geom_point() + 
      geom_line() +
      scale_x_continuous(name='some name') +
      scale_y_continuous(name='another name') +
      geom_errorbar(aes(ymin=means-stderrs,ymax=means+stderrs),width=2) + 
      opts(title = title)
}

lapply(names(your_list), function(x) plot2(your_list[[x]], x))