R Apply function to list and create new dataframe

Question

I am wanting to retrieve data from several webpages that is in the same place on all the pages and put it all in one data frame.

I have the following code attempt:

library(XML)
library(plyr)

**##the urls**
raceyears<-list(url2013,url2012,url2011)

**##function that is not producing what I want**
raceyearfunction<-function(x){
page<-readLines(x)
stats<-page[10:19]
y<-read.table(textConnection(stats))
run<-data.frame(y$V1,y$V2)
colnames(run)<-c("Country","Participants")
rbind.fill(run)
}

data<-llply(raceyears,raceyearfunction)

This places all the data in multiple columns (two columns for each webpage) but I am wanting all the data in two columns (Participants, Country) one data frame not many columns in one data frame.

I haven't found a question quite like this already on the site but am open to follow a link. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

You need to use rbindlist outside of raceyearfunction. Let it return(run) without rbind.fill(run).

You can use ldply instead, then it will return binded data.frame already.

library(XML)
library(plyr)

raceyears <- list(url2013,url2012,url2011)

raceyearfunction<-function(x)
{
    page <- readLines(x)
    stats <- page[10:19]
    y <- read.table(textConnection(stats))
    run <- data.frame(y$V1,y$V2)
    colnames(run) <- c("Country","Participants")
    return(run)
}
data<-ldply(raceyears, raceyearfunction)