Combining data set issues

[charles krumsiek]

Hi,
I am working on an undergrad thesis paper and am trying to prepare a data set to use. I need to combine a number of data sets into one master set. These sets will share a number of variables (country, year, ect.) from the Polity IV data set and I would like to add new variables to these from other data sets. I have tried a number of different merges and appends but have gotten stuck.

Any advice will help.

Thank you

[William Lisowski]

It is difficult to imagine that anyone can give you an answer more specific than

Try something else

with no idea of what your data are like (most of us have no idea what the "Polity IV" dataset is, and only a few will be interested in doing a web search to learn about it), nor any idea of what you have tried that has not worked, nor any idea of how they did not work, nor any idea what Stata may have told you to indicate why some commands did not work.

To have a chance at a more thorough answer, take a few moments to review the Statalist FAQ linked to from the top of the page, as well as from the Advice on Posting link on the page you used to create your post. Note especially sections 9-12 on how to best pose your question. It's particularly helpful to copy commands and output from your Stata Results window and paste them into your Statalist post using code delimiters [CODE] and [/CODE], and to use the dataex command to provide sample data, as described in section 12 of the FAQ.

Section 12.1 is particularly pertinent

12.1 What to say about your commands and your problem

Say exactly what you typed and exactly what Stata typed (or did) in response. N.B. exactly!
...
Never say just that something "doesn't work" or "didn't work", but explain precisely in what sense you didn't get what you wanted.

The more you help others understand your problem, the more likely others are to be able to help you solve your problem.