In R Shiny how to append to each list element the sequential number of times it appears in the list using sortable js?

Question

The below reproducible code works fine for dragging elements from one panel to another, and in the "Drag to" panel automatically, using HTML/CSS, rank order numbering each element dragged in.

However, I'm now trying to append to the end of each "Drag to" list element (using some form of paste0(...) I assume) the alphabetic equivalent of the number of times that element appears in the "Drag to" list, as illustrated at the bottom. How can this done?

Reproducible code:

library(shiny)
library(sortable)
library(htmlwidgets)

icons <- function(x) {lapply(x,function(x){tags$div(tags$strong(x))})}

ui <- fluidPage(
  
  tags$head(
    tags$style(HTML('
      #dragTo {list-style-type: none;  counter-reset: css-counter 0;}
      #dragTo > div {counter-increment: css-counter 1;}
      #dragTo > div:before {content: counter(css-counter) ". ";}
      ')
    )
  ),
  
  div(
    style = "margin-top: 2rem; width: 60%; display: grid; grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr; gap: 2rem; align-items: start;",
    div(
      div(
        class = "panel panel-default",
        div(class = "panel-heading", "Drag from here"),
        div(
          class = "panel-body",
          id = "dragFrom",
          icons(c("Puppies", "Kittens"))
        )
      ),
    ),
    div(
      div(
        class = "panel panel-default",
        div(class = "panel-heading", "Drag to here"),
        div(
          class = "panel-body",
          id = "dragTo"
        )
      )
    )
  ),
  sortable_js(
    "dragFrom",
    options = sortable_options(
      group = list(
        pull = "clone",
        name = "group1",
        put = FALSE
      )
    )
  ),
  sortable_js(
    "dragTo",
    options = sortable_options(
      group = list(
        group = "group1",
        put = TRUE,
        pull = TRUE
      ),
      onSort = sortable_js_capture_input(input_id = "selected")
    )
  ),
  helpText(h5(strong("Output to table:"))),
  tableOutput("table1")
)

server <- function(input, output) {
  dragToLabels <- reactive({
    data.frame(data = paste0(seq_along(input$selected), ". ", input$selected))
  })
  
  output$table1 <- renderTable({dragToLabels()})
}

shinyApp(ui, server)

Illustration:

Answer 1

A first draft using data.table:

library(shiny)
library(sortable)
library(htmlwidgets)
library(data.table)

icons <- function(x) {lapply(x,function(x){tags$div(tags$strong(x))})}

ui <- fluidPage(
  
  tags$head(
    tags$style(HTML('
      #dragTo {list-style-type: none;  counter-reset: css-counter 0;}
      #dragTo > div {counter-increment: css-counter 1;}
      #dragTo > div:before {content: counter(css-counter) ". ";}
      ')
    )
  ),
  
  div(
    style = "margin-top: 2rem; width: 60%; display: grid; grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr; gap: 2rem; align-items: start;",
    div(
      div(
        class = "panel panel-default",
        div(class = "panel-heading", "Drag from here"),
        div(
          class = "panel-body",
          id = "dragFrom",
          icons(c("Puppies", "Kittens"))
        )
      ),
    ),
    div(
      div(
        class = "panel panel-default",
        div(class = "panel-heading", "Drag to here"),
        div(
          class = "panel-body",
          id = "dragTo"
        )
      )
    )
  ),
  sortable_js(
    "dragFrom",
    options = sortable_options(
      group = list(
        pull = "clone",
        name = "group1",
        put = FALSE
      )
    )
  ),
  sortable_js(
    "dragTo",
    options = sortable_options(
      group = list(
        group = "group1",
        put = TRUE,
        pull = TRUE
      ),
      onSort = sortable_js_capture_input(input_id = "selected")
    )
  ),
  helpText(h5(strong("Output to table:"))),
  tableOutput("table1")
)

server <- function(input, output) {
  dragToLabels <- reactive({
    # browser()
    # DT <- data.table(data = paste0(seq_along(input$selected), ". ", input$selected))
    req(input$selected)
    DT <- data.table(item = input$selected)
    DT[, c("rownumber", "letter") := .(.I, LETTERS[seq_len(.N)]), by = item]
    setcolorder(DT, c("rownumber", "item", "letter"))
    # DT[, data := paste0(rownumber, ". ", item, " ", letter)][, c("rownumber", "item", "letter") := NULL] # paste to a single column
  })
  
  output$table1 <- renderTable({dragToLabels()})
}

shinyApp(ui, server)