Comparison of Combining Text

lot <- rep(paste0(LETTERS[1:20], "\t", collapse=""), 50000)

system.time({
  t1 <- read.table(text=lot)
})

##    user  system elapsed 
##   4.332   0.018   4.352

system.time({
  p <- paste(lot, collapse="\n")
  t2 <- read.table(text=p)
})

##    user  system elapsed 
##   0.214   0.013   0.227

system.time({
  t3 <- read.table(textConnection(lot))
})

##    user  system elapsed 
##   4.225   0.016   4.242

identical(t1, t2)

## [1] TRUE

identical(t2, t3)

## [1] TRUE