Perhaps this is a question for another forum, but I had a more general question about dataframes.

I know the data frame feature was added in Stata (16?). Me personally, I'm old school. I started using Stata (semi-seriously) in my (senior?) year of college, with Stata 15, and now as a 1st semester Ph.D student with Stata 17. Thus, when data frames were added to Stata, I didn't know what they were or why I'd need them.

I know Python and R use dataframes, and I get the basic concept behind them... but all the same, why are they useful? Why would I (or anyone) want to use them, ever? I never got the jazz behind storing multiple datasets into n frames at once. Could anyone a little more.... enlightened, than me talk a little about why people should/would want to use dataframes for serious applied work such that it makes life remarkably easier than Stata pre-data frames?

It isn't that I dislike them or think they're bad, I've just never been in a situation where I thought to myself "Gee, another dataset sure would come in handy right about now." Anyone have any thoughts about this?