I have 2 data files that I need to do some matching with and then print a results file with the matches found and some metadata info (like counters, etc). ... Is there a better way?

Have you considered using a relational database? This is the kind of data manipulation that they're good for. With data moved into tables, and an appropriate index, you could do something like 

SELECT
  Datafile1.Company,
  DataFile2.ID,
  DataFile1.Description,
  DataFile2.Address,
  DataFile2.MoreData
FROM
  Datafile1, DataFile2
WHERE
  DataFile2.ID >= DataFile1.SID
  AND DataFile.ID <= DataFile2.EID

[download]
to pull out the data you want.

In reply to Re: Code efficiency / algorithm by dws
in thread Code efficiency / algorithm by dave8775

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