Re: st: Reclink: high matching score, but no match

[Devra Golbe <dgolbe@gmail.com>]

Michael,

student_name is non-numeric.  After some additional data cleaning and 
the resulting reduction of the set that needed a fuzzy match  reclink 
succeeded with student_name as the idusing variable, so my original 
problem is solved.

But working with a smaller data set, I have an example where the 
non-numeric identifier and a numeric identifier fail, but a different 
numeric identifier succeeds.  I'll send those data and the do-file to 
you off-list.

Thanks and happy new year.

Devra

On 12/28/2011 11:49 AM Michael Blasnik wrote:
> It looks like this is a bug -- is student_name numeric?  If not, you
> may want to try encoding it and trying again.  If that isn't the
> problem, it might be best if you either send me the data or a trace
> log off-list to see if i can figure it out, but I may not get a chance
> to figure it out until after the holidays.
>
> Michael
>
> On Sat, Dec 24, 2011 at 4:10 PM, Devra Golbe<dgolbe@gmail.com>  wrote:
> > I am using  Michael Blasnik's reclink (from SSC) to match records.  I get
> > extremely high matching scores, and yet the records do not match.  Can
> > anyone help?    My code and relevant output are pasted below.
> >
> > Thanks and happy holidays,
> > Devra
> >
> > ******
> > . sort lname fname
> >   . gen idmaster=_n
> >   .tempfile ps1a
> >   .save `ps1a', replace
> >   . clear
> >   .use roster100f11Sep7.dta
> >   .sort lname fname
> >   .save, replace
> >   .clear
> >   .use `ps1a'
> >
> >   .reclink lname fname using roster100f11Sep7.dta, ///
> >    idmaster(idmaster) idusing(student_name) gen(link)
> >
> > 0 perfect matches found
> >
> >
> > Added: student_name= identifier from roster100f11Sep7.dta   link = matching
> > score
> > Observations:  Master N = 26    roster100f11Sep7.dta N= 182
> >   Unique Master Cases: matched = 0 (exact = 0), unmatched = 26
> >
> > .list link _merge in 1/5, clean
> >
> >          link   _merge
> >   1.   0.9933        1
> >   2.   0.9933        1
> >   3.        .        1
> >   4.   0.6420        1
> >   5.   0.9988        1
> >
> > _______
> > Devra Golbe
> > Professor of Economics
> > Hunter College, CUNY
> > NY, NY
> > *
> > *

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