1st time poster, so "Hello!".
Fascinating thread. Not here to provide my opinion on the merits or otherwise of speed ratings, but I can help with Mr Wilsons task. Very simple excel macro to loop through files in a folder and process each as required (in this case gather data).
Suggest you open a new workbook, copy the macro in to a new module then change variables as required, e.g.
fPath – change to your directory where your data stored
fName – change to ".xls" or whatever format they are saved in.
Windows("GatheringDB.xlsm").Activate – change to whatever you call your master file.
I have used it, it is stable if simple. Code follows.
Sub ConvertAllFiles()
Dim fPath As String, fName As String, sName As String
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
fPath = "D:BettingHorseRacingHistoric DataUKHorseRacingData"
fName = Dir(fPath & "*.csv")
Do While Len(fName) > 0
Workbooks.Open fPath & fName
Range("A2").Select
Range(Selection, ActiveCell.SpecialCells(xlLastCell)).Select
Selection.Copy
Windows("GatheringDB.xlsm").Activate
Sheets("Sheet1").Select
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Range("A1").Select
ActiveCell.PasteSpecial (xlPasteValues)
Application.CutCopyMode = False
Selection.End(xlDown).Select
‘ Windows(fPath & fName).Activate
‘ ActiveWorkbook.Close False
fName = Dir
Loop
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub