Generate string with decode

[albert master]

Hi,

I like to generate a string variable out of a numeric (format: double) variable.
Unfortunately "decode" does not work as the variables aren't labled yet

What command do I need to generate the string or should I label the numeric variable first?


Thanks for your advice!

[Nick Cox]

Why do you need a string variable?

help tostring 

[albert master]

Hi! Thanks for your answer
I want to merge two datatsets and use wharton_bx_id and year as the key variable
Unfortunately although I have found a lot of matches stata does not match them, so I try to change the format ?

[Nick Cox]

merge certainly won't match a numeric identifier in one dataset with a string identifier in another dataset, if that is the problem. So, you do need to change variable or storage type (not format in Stata terms).