I would suggest sorting file2 by number. unix sort command. There is a Windows version also.

The idea is to have both file1 and file2 in an order such that it is just a stepwise ladder walk. Our mythical ladder walker has one foot on ladder1 and one foot on ladder2 and if a foot moves, it moves upward.

This takes a long time:

foreach line in file1... { loop through lines in file2... { ...many comparisons... decide which one is next } }
A step-wise walker algorithm is a merge of 2 sorted files and is much faster because all that is needed is to decide who goes next, like 2 cars at a stop sign.
foreach line in file1... { # insert file2 line(s) that should go before the # current line from file1 while {the current line in file2 is "next" in total order} { output that line from file2; move to next line in file2 } output the file1 line } output rest of file2 lines (if any)

In reply to Re^2: Merging larges files by columns by Marshall
in thread Merging larges files by columns by ScottJohn

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