<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="MS Exchange Server version 6.0.4630.0">
<TITLE>Append/merge</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<!-- Converted from text/rtf format -->
<BR>
<BR>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">I have a question about stacking datasets.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">I have 40 stata datasets that have exactly the same number of variables, with the same names (~420k rows, 8 columns).</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">The datasets are relatively large ~ 15 megs.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">If they were text files a linux "cat file1 file2 >> combo" sort of strategy would work.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">I've considered using a merge command, but I don't want any records merged, only appended. Also, I don't want any variables to be renamed. Given there unique nature, using a simple merge(read.dta('file1'),read.dta('file2')) would give me (I think) what I am looking for but seems incredibly inefficient.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">There are a number of ways I could approach this all of which involve a non-R solution. </FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Does somebody have an R solution in mind?</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Thanks in advance,</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Debra Taylor</FONT>
</P>
</BODY>
</HTML>