I have around 30 dataframes with varying number of samples, but same metadata columns. For example, the columns are Sample ID,Date of collection,Place of collection,Days since sample collection to mention a few.

I want to summarize them based on “Place of collection” and “Days since sample collection”. For this I’m using the below function –

check_summary_df <- function(x) {
summarized_data <- x %>% group_by(place_of_collection, day) %>% summarize(count = n())
summarized_data$df_name <- deparse(substitute(x)) # adding this as a column so I can track the df_name
return(summarized_data)
}

And it is providing me with a dataframe with the required summary. My df names are non-standard, so I have put them in a list using input_df_list <- c('df1','collected_by_x','collected_by_y') and now I want to loop the function over the list. I tried a simple for loop –

for (i in 1:length(input_df_list)) { check_summary_df(input_df_list[i])}

And got the below error –

Error in UseMethod("group_by") : 
  no applicable method for 'group_by' applied to an object of class "character"

From what I am seeing, the input_df_list[i] of the loop is recognizing the input as a character string, rather than recognizing it as a dataframe. How can I change this behaviour? Or is there any other way to loop over a list of data frame?