Associative array of string

Question

I would like to create an associative array in R from a type string "key1=values1;key2=value2". I know that this can be done by double splitting and building the array manually, but I was wondering if I have something that I can work with.

Answer 1

Using the environment as an "associative array" provides a simple solution.

string <- "key1=99; key2=6"

# Create an environment which will be your array
env <- new.env()

# Assign values to keys in the environment, using eval(parse())
eval(parse(text=string), envir=env)

# Check that it works:
ls(env)
# [1] "key1" "key2"
env$key1
# [1] 99

as.list(env)
# $key1
# [1] 99

# $key2
# [1] 6

Answer 2

Here is one approach using eval(parse)

string <- c("key1 = 10, key2 = 20")
eval(parse(text = paste('list(', string, ")")))
$key1
[1] 10

$key2
[1] 20