Converting a string variable to a time

[Jacqui Evans]

Hi all,
Sorry, I'm still quite new to Stata so bear with me!
I have a variable with a large series of times in the format HH:MM:SS,milliseconds. For example, 08:56:01,070. I'm trying to convert this variable to a format recognisable by stata to use in a time series.
I've tried variations on:
generate double time2 = clock(time, "hms") but am just getting a series of dots in the new variable column.
I would appreciate any help you could give me on this!

[Clyde Schechter]

The problem arises from the comma as decimal point. Use -subinstr()- to replace those with periods (dots, '.'), and then your code will work. (Note: -set dp comma- will not solve this problem.)

[Jacqui Evans]

Thanks very much for that! Worked perfectly!