Pierre,
Why not something like:
. list
+----------------------------+
| id var1 var2 |
|----------------------------|
1. | 1 Alexander Knuth |
2. | 2 Knuth Alexander |
3. | 3 Alexander Brown |
4. | 4 John Brown |
5. | 5 Brown John |
|----------------------------|
6. | 6 Alexander Knuth |
+----------------------------+
. gen fullname = var1 + " " + var2
. list
+----------------------------------------------+
| id var1 var2 fullname |
|----------------------------------------------|
1. | 1 Alexander Knuth Alexander Knuth |
2. | 2 Knuth Alexander Knuth Alexander |
3. | 3 Alexander Brown Alexander Brown |
4. | 4 John Brown John Brown |
5. | 5 Brown John Brown John |
|----------------------------------------------|
6. | 6 Alexander Knuth Alexander Knuth |
+----------------------------------------------+
. gen match = 0
. forvalues i = 1/6 {
2. replace match = `i' if regexm(fullname[`i'], var1) &
regexm(fullname[`i'], var2)
3. }
<snip>
. sort match
. list
+------------------------------------------------------+
| id var1 var2 fullname match |
|------------------------------------------------------|
1. | 3 Alexander Brown Alexander Brown 3 |
2. | 4 John Brown John Brown 5 |
3. | 5 Brown John Brown John 5 |
4. | 2 Knuth Alexander Knuth Alexander 6 |
5. | 1 Alexander Knuth Alexander Knuth 6 |
|------------------------------------------------------|
6. | 6 Alexander Knuth Alexander Knuth 6 |
+------------------------------------------------------+
Now the same person has the same 'match' number.
rafal
================
Rafal Raciborski
Graduate student
Department of Political Science
Emory University
301 Tarbutton Hall
1555 Dickey Drive
Atlanta, GA 30322
404-378-9826 (home)
[email protected]
http://www.roofoos.net/
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