st: merging fuzzy-non-exact data

["Ben Hoen" <bhoen@lbl.gov>]

I am trying to merge two panel data sets from two different data
storehouses, both of which kept data over the same period of the same set of
projects.  Each dataset has four variables: id, name, year, state.  The year
and state will be exact matches in the two datasets, but the names do not
exactly match - different naming conventions were used by the two data
gathering companies.  The names will be similar though.  The goal would be
to create a final linking table that had the id's from both storehouses, so
that in the future I can merge them easily.  

Is there any command that allows one to match in a non-exact manner?

Ben

Ben Hoen
Principal Research Associate
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Office: 845-758-1896
Cell: 718-812-7589
bhoen@lbl.gov
http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/staff/hoen.html



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