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Remove Element From List in R Language

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R is an open-source programming language that is widely used as a statistical software and data analysis tool. R generally comes with the Command-line interface. R is available across widely used platforms like Windows, Linux, and macOS. Also, the R programming language is the latest cutting-edge tool. This article specifies how to remove one or more elements from a given list in R language. It will specify the number of elements to be removed from the list and print the rest elements. As a result, it will return a list of data after performing the operation. You will learn how to remove certain elements from the list.

Method 1: Removing Item from the list using (-) method

Syntax: To remove elements using minus sign

my_list[- number]   

Parameters: 

number – Specifies the number of elements to be removed from the list 

Return:

Return list after removing elements 

Approach

  • Create a vector.
  • Remove one specific element using the (-) method.
  • Delete multiple elements using the same method as illustrated in examples.

Example: 

R




# Create example list
my_list <- list(a = c(1, 4, 2, 7),                 
                b = "geeksforgeeks",
                c = 2)
my_list
  
# remove elements 
my_list[- 1]


Output:

Here, in the above example, my_list[- 1] will remove the data stored in the first list, and after removal of the first data list print the rest data on the screen.

Method 2: Remove elements using NULL assignment

Syntax:

my_list_2[number] <- NULL  

Example:

R




my_list <- list(a = c(1, 4, 2, 7),                 # Create example list
                b = "geeksforgeeks",
                c = 2)
my_list
my_list_2 <- my_list                               # Replicate list
my_list_2[1] <- NULL                               # Remove list elements with NULL
my_list_2


Output :

The above example will remove elements by making them NULL in the list by using the my_list_2[] <- NULL   method. It will clear specific data and print the rest data on the screen.

Method 3: Remove elements using the %in% operator

Syntax: 

my_list[names(my_list) %in% "number" == FALSE]    

Example:

R




# Create example list
my_list <- list(a = c(1, 4, 2, 7),                 
                b = "geeksforgeeks",
                c = 2)
my_list
  
# Remove elements
my_list[names(my_list) %in% "c" == FALSE]


Output:

my_list[names(my_list) %in% “c” == FALSE], with this method the list of data which are declared as false, which get removed from the data list and other will be printed on the screen.

Method 4: Remove element using != operator

Syntax: 

my_list[names(my_list) != "number"]

Example:

R




# Create example list
my_list <- list(a = c(1, 4, 2, 7),                
                b = "geeksforgeeks",
                c = 2)
my_list
my_list[names(my_list) != "a"]


Output: 

my_list[names(my_list) != ” ”  In above code the data list number which is entered between double quote will get  removed .

Below is the implementation to remove multiple data at a time

Example:  

R




# Create example list
my_list <- list(a = c(1, 4, 2, 7),                 
                b = "geeksforgeeks",
                c = 2)
my_list
my_list[- c(1, 3)]


Output:



Last Updated : 21 Apr, 2021
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