Merging using loop

[Naa Naadu]

Dear all,

I am trying to merge files in one folder with files in another folder (all stata files). Below is the codes I have used. I am getting "invalid syntax" . Will be very grateful for help on this. Thank you very much.


global original "/research/alldata_stataversions/data"
global working "/data file/new"

local files : dir "$original/folder1/" files "*.dta"
foreach file in `files' {

use "$original/folder1/`file'",clear
display `files'

local usingfile: dir "$original/folder2/" files "*.dta"
foreach u in `usingfile' {
cd "$original/folder2/`usingfile'"
merge 1:m id using "/`u'"

}
}

[Sergiy Radyakin]

This line makes no sense:

cd "$original/folder2/`usingfile'"

becasue according to your code usingfile is a list, not an individual subdirectory that you may wish to use in cd.

Consider this exerpt:

set trace on
local usingfile: dir "C:\Program Files\Stata17\ado\base/n/" files "*.dta"
foreach u in `usingfile' {
    cd "/`usingfile'"
    //merge 1:m id using "/`u'"
}

As the above code demonstrates this results in error 198 "invalid syntax" when trying to execute:

= cd "/"network1.dta" "network1a.dta" "nlsw88.dta" "nlswide1.dta""

Whether this is the only error in the code and what is the intended action is not entirely clear to me, but hope this helps.

Best, Sergiy Radyakin