Hello, I am trying to append several datasets together (yes they have been cleaned and are ready for appending) but keep getting the following error message:

variable E is str25 in master but byte in using data
You could specify append's force option to ignore this string/numeric mismatch. The using
variable would then be treated as if it contained "".
r(106);

Below is what I used for coding:

cd "/Users/dinardorodriguez/Desktop/CO"
/Users/dinardorodriguez/Desktop/CO

xls2dta , clear generate (newvar1): append using "/Users/dinardorodriguez/Desktop/CO"

Once I got the error I tried:

xls2dta , clear force: append using "/Users/dinardorodriguez/Desktop/CO"

but got the following error:

option force not allowed
r(198);


Any ideas how I can overcome this hiccup?

Thanks,