st: string variable mistakenly converted to numeric in merge?

[r <ratnayakerc@gmail.com>]

Dear Stata-Listers,

I am trying to prepare a large dataset, merged from datasets of a
group of data entry clerks, for analysis. There appears to be a
problem with one string variable. This variable displays only numbers,
though it is supposed to contain string text of about 8 characters in
length. It still remains a string variable though (type: str9, format:
%9s).

I'm unsure what I can do at this point to retrieve the string text.
Any advice would be much appreciated.

Could this have resulted from a merge gone wrong?

Thank you in advance.

Ruwan
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