st: a question about an identifying variable with more than 10 digits

[Hyung-Jai Choi <hchoi5@u.washington.edu>]

Hi.
I have a data set in which an identifying variable id somehow has 
values of more than 10 digits, and find that in some cases, the STATA 
does not distinguish two different individuals when the first 9 digits 
of the id are the same for the two individuals. For example, suppose 
that there are two individuals whose ids are 1234567890 and 1234567891, 
respectively, - the ids differ only in the last digit. Then, the STATA 
displays the two ids in a scientific notation like 1.234E+9 and seems 
to treat the two individuals as the same one. I am wondering if there 
is a way to have the STATA distinguish them. I found a similar problem 
when a variable has more than 9 digits following the decimal point.

Hyung-Jai Choi


 
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