Working with dictionaries/lists to get list of keys

Yes, the list type is a good approximation. You can use names() on your list to set and retrieve the 'keys':

> foo <- vector(mode="list", length=3)
> names(foo) <- c("tic", "tac", "toe")
> foo[[1]] <- 12; foo[[2]] <- 22; foo[[3]] <- 33
> foo
$tic
[1] 12

$tac
[1] 22

$toe
[1] 33

> names(foo)
[1] "tic" "tac" "toe"
> 

You do not even need lists if your "number" values are all of the same mode. If I take Dirk Eddelbuettel's example:

> foo <- c(12, 22, 33)
> names(foo) <- c("tic", "tac", "toe")
> foo
tic tac toe
 12  22  33
> names(foo)
[1] "tic" "tac" "toe"

Lists are only required if your values are either of mixed mode (for example characters and numbers) or vectors.

For both lists and vectors, an individual element can be subsetted by name:

> foo["tac"]
tac 
 22 

Or for a list:

> foo[["tac"]]
[1] 22