Nearmrg: Please help

[Patricia Warren]

Hi everyone,
I am hoping someone can assist me with an issue I am having with nearmrg. I have been working on this for 2 weeks and for some reason I keep getting an error message. I have two data files, but with and ID variable. However, the master file has a date when the individuals were referred and the using data file has a date when individuals are assessed. I am using the below code to merge the data files and I keep getting the same error message. NOTE: I have deleted duplicates in the master date file to ensure there are no duplicates on ID and referral date.

I am using the following code:
nearmrg djjid using "E:\REF_FILE.dta", nearvar(reference_date) genmatch(pactref_date) limit(120) lower

When I use the above code I get the following message:
invalid 'Warren'
r(198);

I have no idea what this means. Any help the forum can provide is greatly appreciated.

PW

[Andrew Musau]

Warren is your name, presumably. Most likely there is a space in your current directory or where the file "REF_FILE.dta" is placed and the program cannot handle this. You can check your current directory by typing

cd

If this is the case, I would suggest creating a folder somewhere on your system without any spaces in the folder name and putting both files in there. Then specify this as your current directory, e.g.,

cd "C:\Desktop\myfolder"

in a Windows system for a folder named "myfolder" that is in the Desktop. The path may be different for you. Then check if this resolves it.

[Patricia Warren]

Hi Andrew Musau,
Thank you very much for the quick reply. I am going to try this and see if I can get it to run. Happy Holidays.