How to create variable from 1 to n (increments of 1)?

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Assuming that in Stata e.g. I have one stacked variable (in column 2) of stock returns with data populating range of 1 to 2000000 (some blanks are replaced with dots). How can I create another variable next to it, which will start at 1 and jump in the increments of one (1, 2, 3, 4...) all the way down to 2000000? I need this kind of variable to merge datasets. Advice would be much appreciated.

If it helps, if I was to use VBA, I would find the last row of the stacked column and then create a variable on this basis moving in the increments of one (that would be of course if Excel allowed 2 million rows)

stata
1 Answers
gen long id = _n

will populate a variable with the observation number.

Note that you can merge on observation number. You don't need any identifier variable(s) to do it. In practice, I would almost always be very queasy about any merge not based on explicit identifiers, unless the datasets were visibly compatible (not so with 2 million observations).

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