st: AW: invalid syntax error in reclink depending on variables for fuzzy matching

[Roth Florian <Florian.Roth@unilu.ch>]

Dear all,

the problem was that reclink doesn't like certain special characters in the strings. To solve this issue Mercoledi Nasiir proposed to use the following code

forvalues x=33/39 {
for var mf_mauty mf_marke_Str: replace X=subinstr(X,char(`x'),"",.)
}
foreach x in 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 96 {
for var mf_mauty mf_marke_Str: replace X=subinstr(X,char(`x'),"",.)
}

In my case " ` " was the crucial character (ASCII Code 96). Maybe this will help someone later on with the same problem.

Best regards,
Florian Roth



-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] Im Auftrag von Roth Florian
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 3. April 2014 17:40
An: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
Betreff: st: invalid syntax error in reclink depending on variables for fuzzy matching

Dear all,

I'm trying to run a fuzzy match of car registry data with additional price data. Since the registry data is not very clean I can't just use merge. When I use the following code I get an error invalid syntax r(198). I usually get the error after about half the matching is done. I ran the code using Stata 12.1 and reclink 1.7

use CarReg.dta, clear

reclink str_brand str_model_part1 str_model_part2 rom_displacement rom_fuel_type rom_gear_box rom_import_year using "Price.dta", idmaster(idmaster) idusing(idusing) gen(matchscore) ///
			required(str_brand str_model_part1 rom_displacement rom_import_year rom_fuel_type rom_gear_box) wmatch( 1 1 3 1 1 1 3)

I get the following output:

15429 perfect matches found

Going through 48915 observation to assess fuzzy matches, each .=5% complete .........invalid syntax r(198);


The variables starting with "str_" are strings, those starting with "rom_" are integer variables converted to roman numbers (I found that the matching works better with roman numbers). I can't really find a syntax error and the same code has worked with a slightly different data set and without the variables rom_fuel_type rom_gear_box. I have started removing variables to see if they could be the problem. If I remove enough variables the code works. But I can't figure out what is wrong with these variables. Does somebody have an idea what the problem could be?

Best regards,
Florian Roth












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