st: Asking: choose between collapse and sort,copy-paste

[Yun <yuniphone@yahoo.co.id>]

I am using stata 11.0
I plan to merge some files which have different unique ID. 
All the unique IDs are in string.

So, i have in a file three different columns as ID: ID1, ID2, & school type

And in other file, the column is: ID1, ID2

However, I supposed that school types data prevents me to merge between files.


I use this command: sort varlists, stable

Then i copy and paste the same type or level in a new column within the same file. I do not know whether this is the correct way to do it.

I read stata help online about collapse but still do not know how to do it correctly.

The schooltype column is in string containing data:
A=primary school
B=secondary school
C=tertiary school


I am wondering if stata has command to separate this type so i can merge between files correctly.

Thank you for your help.

Regards,

Yun




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