Merging columns from several files

Frequently, when I calculate some simple test statistics, I have to look up their expression. This is a shame for a statistician. Now it's better. Yet to implement them in my program is often error prone. So I will try to use R to do my jobs and forget even the expression I just remembered:

$ pr -m -t $file-list | gawk '{print $var-list}'

Here -m is to print all files in parallel, -t is omit page headers and trailers. Check man for pr for more details.  Results can be redirected to some file else to do further analysis, e.g., R.

For R, try to use:
#!/usr/bin/env Rscript
Then change the file's attribute to executable.  This will automatically suppress many unnecessary information generated by R.