Remember also -hexdump- in Stata.
Nick
[email protected]
Fred Wolfe
> 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.
> 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 |
> > +-----------------------------------------+
*
* 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/
