Hi everyone

I am having a simple problem with merging interest rate data with a country identifier variable. I am using the following basic code:

merge m:1 country using "`root_folder'/ID.dta"

The master dataset is the interest rate data and the using data is simply a dataset linking each country to a unique number.

Here is a Data example for my interest rate data:

* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input float date str12 country float Tbonds
-161438 "Netherlands " .2
-161073 "Netherlands " .1805
-160708 "Netherlands " .1717
-160342 "Netherlands " .1544
-159977 "Netherlands " .1822
-159612 "Netherlands " .1978
-159247 "Netherlands " .1458
-158881 "Netherlands " .1225
-158516 "Netherlands " .1217
-158151 "Netherlands " .1276
-157786 "Netherlands " .167
-157420 "Netherlands " .1902
-157055 "Netherlands " .1948
-156690 "Netherlands " .1869
-156325 "Netherlands " .1748
-155959 "Netherlands " .1594
-155229 "Netherlands " .1338
-154864 "Netherlands " .1325
-154498 "Netherlands " .1672
-154133 "Netherlands " .1525
-153768 "Netherlands " .1263
-153403 "Netherlands " .1488
-153037 "Netherlands " .156
-152672 "Netherlands " .1188
-152307 "Netherlands " .1188
-151942 "Netherlands " .12
-151576 "Netherlands " .15
-151211 "Netherlands " .11
-150846 "Netherlands " .1156
-150481 "Netherlands " .11
-150115 "Netherlands " .1
-149750 "Netherlands " .0975
-148654 "Netherlands " .08333
-145732 "Netherlands " .0625
-140619 "Netherlands " .2
-139888 "Netherlands " .08333
-131122 "Netherlands " .085
-130757 "Netherlands " .085
-130392 "Netherlands " .085
-130027 "Netherlands " .085
-129661 "Netherlands " .085
-129296 "Netherlands " .085
-128931 "Netherlands " .071427
-128566 "Netherlands " .071427
-128200 "Netherlands " .071427
-127835 "Netherlands " .071427
-127470 "Netherlands " .071427
-127105 "Netherlands " .071427
-126739 "Netherlands " .071427
-126374 "Netherlands " .071427
-126009 "Netherlands " .071427
-125644 "Netherlands " .071427
-125278 "Netherlands " .071427
-124913 "Netherlands " .071427
-124548 "Netherlands " .071427
-124183 "Netherlands " .071427
-123817 "Netherlands " .061666
-123452 "Netherlands " .061666
-123087 "Netherlands " .061666
-122722 "Netherlands " .061666
-122356 "Netherlands " .061666
-121991 "Netherlands " .061666
-121626 "Netherlands " .061666
-121261 "Netherlands " .061666
-120895 "Netherlands " .061666
-120530 "Netherlands " .061666
-120165 "Netherlands " .061666
-119800 "Netherlands " .061666
-119434 "Netherlands " .061666
-119069 "Netherlands " .061666
-118704 "Netherlands " .061666
-118339 "Netherlands " .061666
-117973 "Netherlands " .061666
-117608 "Netherlands " .061666
-117243 "Netherlands " .061666
-116878 "Netherlands " .061666
-116512 "Netherlands " .05
-116147 "Netherlands " .05
-115782 "Netherlands " .05
-115417 "Netherlands " .05
-115051 "Netherlands " .05
-114686 "Netherlands " .05
-114321 "Netherlands " .05
-113956 "Netherlands " .05
-113590 "Netherlands " .05
-113225 "Netherlands " .05
-112860 "Netherlands " .05
-112495 "Netherlands " .05
-112129 "Netherlands " .05
-111764 "Netherlands " .05
-111399 "Netherlands " .04
-111034 "Netherlands " .04
-110668 "Netherlands " .04
-110303 "Netherlands " .04
-109938 "Netherlands " .04
-109573 "Netherlands " .04
-109207 "Netherlands " .04
-108842 "Netherlands " .04
-108477 "Netherlands " .04
-108112 "Netherlands " .04
end
format %td date


Here is the data ex for my id variable.
copy starting from the next line ------ ----------------
Code:
* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install    dataex
clear
input str11 country byte ID
"Argentina"    1
"Australia"    2
"Austria"      3
"Belgium"      4
"Brazil"       5
"Bulgaria"     6
"Canada"       7
"Chile"        8
"China"        9
"Colombia"    10
"Croatia"     11
"Czech"       12
"Denmark"     13
"Ecuador"     14
"Egypt"       15
"Euro"        16
"France"      17
"Germany"     18
"Greece"      19
"HK"          20
"Hungary"     21
"Iceland"     22
"India"       23
"Indonesia"   24
"Ireland"     25
"Israel"      26
"Japan"       27
"Kuwait"      28
"Latvia"      29
"Lithuania"   30
"Luxembourg"  31
"Mexico"      32
"Netherlands" 33
"Norway"      34
"NZ"          35
"Peru"        36
"Philippines" 37
"Poland"      38
"Portugal"    39
"Russia"      40
"SA"          41
"Saudi"       42
"Singapore"   43
"Spain"       44
"Sweden"      45
"Switzerland" 46
"Taiwan"      47
"Thailand"    48
"Turkey"      49
"UK"          50
"Vietnam"     51
end
copy up to and including the previous line - ----------------

Listed 51 out of 51 observations

For some reason running this simple merging code doesn't lead to a perfect match for all my observations. I have no idea why.