[R] empty_named_list() uses deprecated .Names in structure()

[thisisnic]

The fedora-r-clang nightly (R-devel) is failing with 268 test failures, all from the same cause: R-devel now deprecates using .Names as a special attribute name in structure().

The warning:

Replacing special names '.Names' is deprecated; use 'names' instead.

Source:

arrow/r/R/util.R

Line 47 in 2a526c1

empty_named_list <- function() structure(list(), .Names = character(0))

empty_named_list <- function() structure(list(), .Names = character(0))

Fix is to replace .Names with names.

Failing nightly: https://github.com/ursacomputing/crossbow/actions/runs/29068520086/job/86285065823

This issue was drafted by Claude and reviewed by Nic Crane.

[jonkeane]

Thanks for opening this — I came to do the same. We will need to make this change in our release too — just got an email from CRAN to correct this before 2026-07-25

[thisisnic]

Issue resolved by pull request 50485
#50485