Re: st: "unrecognized command: merge" when reshaping

[David Kantor <dkantor@jhu.edu>]

At 02:10 PM 4/13/2005 +0100, Dan Rigby  wrote:
> When I run these commands I get an error message. The data file
> is 2000 obs and I want to reshape it into 50 x 50 after the density
> plot:
>
> set matsize 800
> kdens2 var6 var7 , saving(c:/testdan2, replace)
> clear
> use c:/testdan2
> reshape wide d _var7 _var6, i(_i) j(_j)
>
> the error reads:
> unrecognized command:  merge
> r(199)
>
> there is a similar question from last year in the statalist archive but
> I can't see an answer to it.
>
> Any advice appreciated.
>
> thanks,
> dan rigby
> [...]
I suspect that you are missing merge.ado, or it is not on your 
adopath.  Try typing
 merge
and see if you get
 unrecognized command:  merge

Originally, merge was a built-in command. More recently, they changed its 
name to _merge and gave you merge.ado as a front-end to access it, and to 
provide some extra features.

I, too, had the same situation for a while, until I was able to update my 
ados.  As a stopgap measure, you can manually type,
 prog def merge
 _merge `*'
 end

This will give you access to _merge as if it were named merge.  That is, 
you get the base-level functionality (the old merge), but without the extra 
features of merge.ado such as merging multiple files in one call.  In your 
particular situation, whether this works will depend on whether reshape 
makes use of the extra features (assuming that it is reshape where the 
error occurred); I don't know, but I suspect not.

But the proper solution, assuming I am correct, is to update your ados.  Or 
possibly check to see that your adopath is properly set.

-- David


David Kantor
Institute for Policy Studies
Johns Hopkins University
dkantor@jhu.edu
410-516-5404
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