An experiment to expand a nested list into Rmd sections, including a recursive function to remove blank (`""`) elements

expand-nested-list.Rmd

---
title: "Autogenerating Rmd sections from a nested list"
output: 
  html_document:
    code_folding: hide
---

```{r}
remove_blanks_recursively <- function(x) {

  if (!is.list(x)) return(x)

  x |>
    purrr::discard(\(x) isTRUE(nchar(x) == 0)) |>
    purrr::map(remove_blanks_recursively)

}

expand_list_to_rmd <- function(x) {
  
  x <- remove_blanks_recursively(x)
  
  h1_names <- names(x)
  
  for (h1 in h1_names) {
    
    cat("#", h1, "\n\n")
    
    h1_is_list <- is.list(x[[h1]])
    
    if (!h1_is_list) cat(x[[h1]], "\n\n")
    
    if (h1_is_list) {
      
      h2_names <- names(x[[h1]])
      
      for (h2 in h2_names) {
        
        cat("##", h2, "\n\n")
        
        h2_is_list <- is.list(x[[h1]][[h2]])
        
        if (!h2_is_list) cat(x[[h1]][[h2]], "\n\n")
        
        if (h2_is_list) {
          
          h3_names <- names(x[[h1]][[h2]])
          
          for (h3 in h3_names) {
            
            cat("###", h3, "\n\n")
            
            h3_is_list <- is.list(x[[h1]][[h2]][[h3]])
            
            if (!h3_is_list) cat(x[[h1]][[h2]][[h3]], "\n\n")
            
            if (h3_is_list) warning("No evaluation at this depth.")
            
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
```

```{r results='asis'}
n = 10

x <- list(
  x1 = lorem::ipsum_words(n),
  y1 = list(y1.1 = lorem::ipsum_words(n)),
  z1 = list(
    z1.1 = list(
      z1.1.1 = lorem::ipsum_words(n),
      z1.1.2 = "",
      z1.1.3 = lorem::ipsum_words(n)
    ),
    z1.2 = list(
      z1.2.1 = "",
      z1.2.2 = lorem::ipsum_words(n),
      z1.2.3 = lorem::ipsum_words(n)
    )
  )
)

expand_list_to_rmd(x)
```