Merge many data frames from csv files, when ID column is implied?

Question

I\'d like to merge a bunch of data frames together (because it seems many operations are easier if you\'re only dealing w/ one, but correct me if I\'m wrong).

Curren

Answer 1

My understanding is that you need to extract the ID from the filename, and then merge the imported csv with the existing dataframe.

df1 <- read.csv(textConnection("ID, var1, var2
A,  2,    2
B,  4,    5"))

# assuming the imported csv-files are in working directory
filenames <- list.files(getwd(), pattern = "ID_[A-Z].csv")

# extract ID from filename
ids <- gsub("ID_([A-Z]).csv", "\\1", filenames)

# import csv-files and append ID
library(plyr)
import <- mdply(filenames, read.csv)
import$ID <- ids[import$Var1]
import$Var1 <- NULL

# merge imported csv-files and the existing dataframe
merge(df1, import)  

Result:

ID var1 var2 time var4 var5
1  B    4    5    0    1    2
2  B    4    5    1    4    5
3  B    4    5    2    1    6