How do I merge data files with multiple identifiers that are different?

Dear Statalisters,

I am a new stata user currently working on a socioeconomic dataset of about 5,000 households, and need help to merge some of the data. I am trying to merge 5 files, each with two variables as unique identifiers, jointly. One of the two identifiers in each file (hhno – household id) is common across all the 5 files but the rest are different. The files and their identifiers are as follows: I am doing plot level analysis which duplicates hhno. Except m:m merge, the other more assured merge types predictably return the error “variable not found”, respectively referring to the data item identifiers. As the m:m merge output (matches) does not look convincing, I tried using –joinby– whose output does not look convincing either. What I always expect to match in some cases don’t. Next, I tried grouping the 2 unique identifiers in each file using ege, group() concatenation command but doubt if that is reasonable and/or appropriate for my purpose.

If I can be sure that using this -egen, group()- command to concatenate the pairs of each file into 1 unique id will be centered on the hhno, I can proceed with the merging, but I don’t get that impression in both reading and experimenting with that. What I want to do (merging) seems basic but I am stuck, and hope and look forward to your kind assistance guiding me on how to merge the data.

Thank you!
Francis