st: Merging and applying ltrim?

[n j cox <n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk>]

-ltrim()- (indeed -trim()-) before attempting to -merge-.

Nick
n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk

Marilyn Ibarra

I have a string variable that in the data editor in STATA appears to be 
right aligned for some observations.  There are blanks before the actual 
values.  I was trying to merge two files and ended up with the variable 
us_id like this. It did not merge correctly. The first 6 observations 
should have merged and the last six observations should of merged as 
well. Any ideas?  I think I need to use ltrim but not sure where to put 
the ltrim() at?

For example, I have the variable us_id;

us_id
00050
00010
00020
   00050
   00010
   00020
00060
00070
00080
   00060
   00070
   00080


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