  We introduce a general method of gluing multi-partite states and show that
entanglement swapping is a special class of a wider range of gluing operations.
The gluing operation of two m and n qudit states consists of an entangling
operation on two given qudits of the the two states followed by operations of
measurements of the two qudits in the computational basis. Depending on how
many qudits (two, one or zero) we measure, we have three classes of gluing
operation, resulting respectively in m+n-2, m+n-1 or m+n qudit states.
Entanglement swapping belongs to the first class and has been widely studied,
while the other two classes are presented and studied here. In particular we
study how larger GHZ and W states can be constructed when we glue the smaller
GHZ and W states by the second method. Finally we prove that when we glue two
states by the third method, the k-uniformity of the states is preserved. That
is when a k-uniform state of m qudits is glued to a k'-uniform state of n
qudits, the resulting state will be a min(k,k')-uniform of m+n qudits.
