Merging Datasets using strL

[Rodrigo Ferreira]

Hello,

Do you know how can I merge two datasets using strL variables?

If it is not possible how can I convert strL to another format?

As you can see I am new to stata. Thanks for the help!

[Joe Canner]

Rodrigo,

No, merge key variables cannot be strL.

The best you could do is probably to figure out the length of the longest string and convert to a string of that size. If that is more than 2045, then you will have to truncate to 2045.

// Figure out longest length
gen len=length(mergekey)
summ len
// Convert to a fixed-length string
recast str2045 mergekey, force  // If the longest is less than 2045, use that number instead of 2045

Regards,
Joe