list data.tables in memory and combine by row (rbind)

Question

I have many data.tables in memory with names following a specific pattern (e.g.: RE_1, RE_2... CO_1, CO_2...). I want to bind them efficiently to get only two data.tables (RE and CO).

I tried:

RE <- rbindlist(ls(pattern = "RE"))

But I got the following error: "Error in rbindlist(ls(pattern = "RE")) : Input to rbindlist must be a list of data.tables".

Is there a way to make such a "usable" list of data.tables (or data frames)?

Answer 1

Try

rbindlist(lapply(ls(pattern = "RE"),get))

Dont know if this is the most effective way but... It works.

ls(...) returns a vector with the names of your data.tables. Not the data.tables themself. get gets you the object by name.

You can also use

rbindlist(mget(ls(pattern = "RE")))