I think I am more confused than before -- the graphic at th end just doesn't
do much for me...
I suggest that you provide a more direct description --
What are the variables in each dataset (you can drop extraneous ones from
the description)?
What specific stata commands are you issuing in what order?
A log file excerpt may be helpful
Michael Blasnik
[email protected]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Julian Fennema" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 1:12 PM
Subject: RE: st: Merge problem
> Sorry, but it is clear that my attempt to be as precise as possible
> failed. Mea culpa.
>
> In response to Bill Gould-
> Neither the production nor the investment dataset has any observations
> for b1, nor a variable denoted b1 prior to beginning the merge. This is
> only created through the link with r1/r2 at a later point.
>
> In response to Michael Blasnik-
> You are very right that the update option could work, and I have used it
> as a work-around. Temporarily ignoring the strange effect of the link
> working for one dataset, whereas not for the other despite the r1/r2
> variables being exactly the same, does work. Essentially, by only
> merging one (investment) of the datasets to get b1, and then merging on
> r1/r2 with the other (production) I "borrow" the link from the former.
> The problem with this is that former contains fewer observations than
> the latter which, if possible, I do not want to lose.
>
> Ultimately the question remains as to how the links can act so strangely
> as depicted below:
>
>
> Investment
> / \
> Link =/= Production
>
> Thanks to both for your time,
>
> Julian
>
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