How to merge a list of data frames in R

gistfile1.r

# dummy data
maxN <- 10
listLen <- 6
Ns <- sample(as.integer(maxN/2):maxN, listLen)
dat <- lapply(Ns, function(N) data.frame(country=sample(maxN, N), var=rnorm(N)))
 
# function that (recursively) does the merging
merger <- function(lst, var.name) if(length(lst) == 1) lst else merge(lst[[1]], merger(lst[-1], var.name), by=var.name, all=T)
 
# do the merge and put sensible names on the result, and fix the NAs (set to zero)
merged <- merger(dat, 'country')
colnames(merged) <- paste('year', 1:length(dat), sep='')
merged[is.na(merged)] <- 0