Dear Statalisters:
I am having a problem and could use some help merging two datasets
I'm sure there is probably an easy answer to this, but I can't think of
it. Here is the info I think you might need to help me:
Dataset 1 -1.dta- has country, leader, and year. These variables are
all numeric codes. This data set also has the precise date when a
leader was removed and replaced by another leader. Sometimes there are
also gaps where one leader has departed and the next leader has not yet
come to power. Here is a made up example of what 1.dta looks like:
Country leader year leader start Leader end Obs. Start
Obs. End
2 25 1960 Jan 1, 1950 Mar 6, 1960 Jan 1, 1960
Mar 6, 1960
2 26 1960 Mar 7, 1960 Nov 1, 1960 Mar 7, 1960
Nov 1, 1960
2 27 1960 Nov 30, 1960 Jan 1, 1965 Nov 30 1960
Dec 31, 1960
2 27 1961 Nov 30, 1960 Jan 1, 1963 Jan 1, 1961
Dec 31, 1961
2 27 1962 Nov 30, 1960 Jan 1, 1963 Jan 1, 1962
Dec 31, 1962
Dataset 2 -2.dta- has country, year, and the precise date that a dispute
ended. But no leader information. Also all numeric.
Country year dispute end
2 1960 Mar 4, 1960
2 1960 Oct 27, 1960
I can merge the data on country and year and all of the disputes endings
will be assigned to the proper country and year, but when a leader
changes in the middle of the year, the dispute ending would be merged in
multiple times. I could go into the data after the merge and delete out
all the merged information if dispute end is not between Obs. Stare and
Obs. End, but that seems kind of messy. So I guess I am trying to merge
a precise date into the proper range of dates.
What I think I want to do is something like this:
merge country year if disputeend>obsstart & disputeend<obsendate
But I think that you cannot use an if statement in a merge. Does
anybody have a suggestion on how to best accomplish this merge?
Thanks,
Dave
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