[rz2k]

It's worth taking a look at `dplyr`. You can work with data tables or data frames (or a database), and the functions are in the same neighborhood as data.table functions in terms of speed. Also, in addition to `reshape2`, there is `tidyr`.

[craigching]

Yep, I know about dplyr, I plan on spending some more time with that. Thanks for the 'tidyr' reference, I haven't heard of that one yet and will check it out!