Without ruling out the possibility that a -merge-
expert can give you useful advice, this still
looks like a guessing game in which guessing is no
fun.
You give us lots of details, but still nothing
concrete about your datasets or your .do file.
A small version in which your problem is evident
is the ideal here.
Naturally, I realise that you are inhibited by
the Statalist rule of not sending attachments,
but there are alternatives:
0. Include a listing of your .do file.
1. Contact tech support at StataCorp.
2. Put the files on a website so that anyone
interested can download.
3. Offer to send the files to volunteer testers
(not me).
Nick
[email protected]
[email protected]
> I am trying to merge 2 datasets.
> But everytime, I get different results
> (_m==3 has 83 observations in the
> first time, 97 in the second, 100 in the
> third and 96 in the fourth, and so on).
> I tried to set seed and made my sort, stable.
> With no success. I also tried to recast double
> my merging identifier. No success. I tried to
> tostring it. No success either.
> Any hints why I obtain these various results?
> I verified in both Stata and Excel.
> I do not understand why Stata marked 3 to some
> observations that belonged to both datasets in the
> first trial and not in the second time.
> Best regards.
> Amadou.
>
> PS: When I work interractivelly, I do not have that problem.
> I have 96 observations that matched. So what I am doing
> wrong in my stata do file?
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