data.frame rows to a list

I have a data.frame which I would like to convert to a list by rows, meaning each row would correspond to its own list elements. In other words, I would like a list that is as long as the data.frame has rows.

So far, I've tackled this problem in the following manner, but I was wondering if there's a better way to approach this.

xy.df <- data.frame(x = runif(10),  y = runif(10))

# pre-allocate a list and fill it with a loop
xy.list <- vector("list", nrow(xy.df))
for (i in 1:nrow(xy.df)) {
    xy.list[[i]] <- xy.df[i,]
}

Like this:

xy.list <- split(xy.df, seq(nrow(xy.df)))

And if you want the rownames of xy.df to be the names of the output list, you can do:

xy.list <- setNames(split(xy.df, seq(nrow(xy.df))), rownames(xy.df))

Eureka!

xy.list <- as.list(as.data.frame(t(xy.df)))

If you want to completely abuse the data.frame (as I do) and like to keep the $ functionality, one way is to split you data.frame into one-line data.frames gathered in a list :

> df = data.frame(x=c('a','b','c'), y=3:1)
> df
  x y
1 a 3
2 b 2
3 c 1

# 'convert' into a list of data.frames
ldf = lapply(as.list(1:dim(df)[1]), function(x) df[x[1],])

> ldf
[[1]]
x y
1 a 3    
[[2]]
x y
2 b 2
[[3]]
x y
3 c 1

# and the 'coolest'
> ldf[[2]]$y
[1] 2

It is not only intellectual masturbation, but allows to 'transform' the data.frame into a list of its lines, keeping the $ indexation which can be useful for further use with lapply (assuming the function you pass to lapply uses this $ indexation)

A more modern solution uses only purrr::transpose:

library(purrr)
iris[1:2,] %>% purrr::transpose()
#> [[1]]
#> [[1]]$Sepal.Length
#> [1] 5.1
#> 
#> [[1]]$Sepal.Width
#> [1] 3.5
#> 
#> [[1]]$Petal.Length
#> [1] 1.4
#> 
#> [[1]]$Petal.Width
#> [1] 0.2
#> 
#> [[1]]$Species
#> [1] 1
#> 
#> 
#> [[2]]
#> [[2]]$Sepal.Length
#> [1] 4.9
#> 
#> [[2]]$Sepal.Width
#> [1] 3
#> 
#> [[2]]$Petal.Length
#> [1] 1.4
#> 
#> [[2]]$Petal.Width
#> [1] 0.2
#> 
#> [[2]]$Species
#> [1] 1