How to convert a list to a data frame in R

Lists often result from reading JSON data or scraping websites. Here is how to convert them to data frames.

Using as.data.frame()

The simplest approach for named lists with equal-length elements:

my_list <- list(
  name = c("Alice", "Bob", "Charlie"),
  age = c(25, 30, 35)
)

df <- as.data.frame(my_list)
#   name age
# 1 Alice  25
# 2   Bob  30
# 3 Charlie 35

Using dplyr::bind_rows()

Handles lists with different lengths by padding with NA:

library(dplyr)

my_list <- list(
  name = c("Alice", "Bob"),
  score = c(85, 90, 78)
)

df <- bind_rows(my_list)
#   name score
# 1 Alice    85
# 2   Bob    90
# 3   NA    78

Using data.table::rbindlist()

Fastest option for large lists:

library(data.table)

my_list <- list(
  name = c("Alice", "Bob"),
  age = c(25, 30)
)

df <- as.data.frame(rbindlist(my_list))

See Also

• list — The list data type
• data.frame — How data frames work
• tibble — tidyverse tibble