Multidimensional binding

Question

For dealing with two-dimensional matrices, rbind and cbind are useful functions. Are there more generic functions to perform the same operation in more dimensions? Suppose I have data like this:

data <- lapply(c(11,22,33), function(i) matrix(i, nrow=2, ncol=4))

What I'd like to obtain is this:

data <- do.call(c, data)
dim(data) <- c(2, 4, 3)

but without having to work out all the dimensions myself.

Is there a function providing this functionality, either built-in or as part of a reasonably common package? Or do you want to share your own ideas of how such a function could be implemented most elegantly?

Bonus points:

• If the function gives some control over the order of dimensions, then a subsequent call to aperm could be avoided.
• It would be nice if it could operate by either passing multiple function arguments or a list of arguments, although using do.call or list, either one will suffice.
• I'd like to use such a function as the .combine argument to a foreach call. So it should be able to construct multi-dimensional matrices using calls of the form f(f(f(a, b), c), d) (each call takes exactly two arguments, the first usually the result of the previous call) or even f(f(a, b), c, d) (more than two arguments, the first still might be the result of the previous call), with a, b, c, d all of the same size, resulting in a matrix with a dimension 1 higher than the dimensions of these and a size of 4 in that dimension, corresponding to the 4 elements a through d.

Answer 1

The abind package has precisely this function, with most of the features you mention, although I haven't checked all of them in detail.

At the very least, it would give you a start on how one would implement something along these lines.