Re: st: Help with string problem

[Fred Wolfe <fwolfe@arthritis-research.org>]

To see the difference, I used -outfile- and then examined the two 
-apatkey-s at the hexadecimal level in a text editor. The key variable that 
didn't merge contained HEX(AO) characters instead of Hex(20). Hex(A0) is 
also a "blank" character (a "non-breaking space" in MS office). In HEX the 
code was "20 A0 A0 22" or space NB-space NB-space ". Somehow this must have 
been created in the Excel file that was sent to me.

Fred

At 09:36 PM 8/24/2006, you wrote:

> Someone sent me a list of IDs (apatkey)for participants registered in our
> databank. They sent an Excel file (alas). I pasted it into Stata and later
> used StatTransfer, both with the same result.
>
> What I did was to save the IDs sent to me. Then I -used- my databank and
> merged the new data in. The problem was that the merge didn't work as
> people with the same apatkey didn't merge. Tracing this down, I found that
> the length of the merged variable was different from the master variable.
> It would seem that there are hidden characters in the case where _merge == 2.
>
> Questions. Does anyone know how to see those hidden characters? Is this a
> known problem with the hated Excel?
>
> . replace apatkey=trim(apatkey)
> . l apat greger _merge length if index(apatkey, "CLE210928")
>
>         +-----------------------------------------+
>         |      apatkey   greger   _merge   length |
>         |-----------------------------------------|
> 28469. |    CLE210928        .        1        9 |
> 74437. | CLE210928           1        2       12 |
>         +-----------------------------------------+
>
> Thanks,
>
> Fred
>
> Fred Wolfe
> National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases
> Wichita, Kansas
> Tel +1 316 263 2125
> fwolfe@arthritis-research.org
>
>
> *
> *   For searches and help try:
> *   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
> *   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> *   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/

Fred Wolfe
National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases
Wichita, Kansas
Tel +1 316 263 2125
fwolfe@arthritis-research.org


*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/