How to convert list variable name after $ into string

Question

I have the following variable name of list type:

tdat$`apoptotic process`

What I'd like to do is to extract the term after $ and then turn them into a string:

"apoptotic process"

How can I achieve that? I tried this but failed:

deparse(substitute(tdat$`apoptotic process`))

Answer 1

Just use the names() function. Assuming 'apoptotic process' is the first element in list tdat:

x <- names(tdat)
x[1]
  `apoptotic process`