How to name dataframe in for loop - r

Question

I'm trying to call a dataframe but it's named with a number because it was originally multiple. I want to either rename the dataframes in my loop or find a way to call my dataframe even though it is titled with a number. Right now, after I run this code:
filenames <- list.files(path = "filepath",pattern = ".*txt")
head(filenames)
names <- substr(filenames,1,22)
for(i in names){
filepath <-file.path("filepath",paste(i,".txt",sep = ""))
assign(i,read.delim(filepath,colClasses = c('character','character','factor','factor'),sep = "\t"))
}
I get a lot of separate dataframes with names like '101_1b1_Al_sc_Meditron.txt'. When I try to even view the dataframe, R is confused because the name begins with a number.
Is there a good solution here?

Answer 1

The simplest solution is to reference the original names using backticks.
example:
`123_mtcars` <- mtcars
View(`123_mtcars`)
If you would prefer to create a naming convention or just to remove numbers from each dataframe name you could do that in your loop and use the new variable in your assign statement.
example:
filenames <- list.files(path = "filepath",pattern = ".*txt")
head(filenames)
names <- substr(filenames,1,22)
for(i in names){
filepath <-file.path("filepath",paste(i,".txt",sep = ""))
# gsub to replace all numbers with "" for the name i
dfName <- gsub("[0-9]", "", i)
assign(dfName,read.delim(filepath,colClasses = c('character','character','factor','factor'),sep = "\t"))
}

Answer 2

The are 3 solutions I can think of :
1. Keeping your code in current state.
If we don't change anything about your code and your dataframes are named as '101_1b1_Al_sc_Meditron' to view the contents of the dataframe you can use backticks. Try using it like this :
`101_1b1_Al_sc_Meditron`
2. Change the name of dataframes.
In your loop change the assign line to
assign(paste0('df_', i), read.delim(filepath,
colClasses = c('character','character','factor','factor'),sep = "\t"))
So after running for loop you'll have filenames as df_101_1b1_Al_sc_Meditron which is a standard name and you can access them without any problem.
3. Store data in a list.
Instead of having so many dataframes in the global environment why not store them in a list. Lists are easier to manage.
list_of_files <-lapply(filepath, function(x) read.delim(x,
colClasses = c('character','character','factor','factor'),sep = "\t"))