Easy: Converting string time to Stata time - Sorry

[Martin Imelda Borg]

I am trying to convert my String Time (modified_date) which is formatted in:

2015-10-28 11:09:47.000

I would like to convert it into stata time
In the interim I would like to generate a new variable to make sure I don't mess up my original data base

these are my commands


1. encode modified_date, gen (Statadate_DMY)
2. date (Statadate_DMY, "YMDhms")
3. format Statadate_DMY %td


For

1: I want to use the data in modified_date to be transferred into my new variable Statadate_DMY
2. Telling Stata to convert the string time into Stata time
3. Telling stata to convert the stata time into human readable time

It doesn't seem to work - I do get a blue value, but the format is %23.0g

Apologies I just started using stata....sorry if it's a silly question

[Øyvind Snilsberg]

gen datetime = clock(modified_date,"YMDhms")
format datetime %tc

gen date = date(substr(modified_date,1,10),"YMD")
format date %td

[Martin Imelda Borg]

Dear Oyvind, Call you please can you explain this:

gen date = date(substr(modified_date,1,10),"YMD") ?

[Nick Cox]

This change to #2 is crucial

 
 gen double datetime = clock(modified_date,"YMDhms")

Wisdom Please If that is your real name, there you go. Otherwise https://www.statalist.org/forums/help#realnames and #3 of https://www.statalist.org/forums/help#adviceextras spell out our firm and explicit request to use a full real name.

You're asked to read through the FAQ Advice before posting.

help datetime

is your resource, and explains, for example, that date() yields a numeric daily date variable.

substr() is a string function that extracts a substring.

I can't follow all of what you did, as for example

date (Statadate_DMY, "YMDhms")

is not a complete Stata command and would fail. However, for reasons that could be explained at length encode is not a remedy for fixing strings to dates or times, but as implied the functions documented under the help just given are crucial.

[Øyvind Snilsberg]

substr(modified_date,1,10) extracts the ten first characters of modified_date, i.e., 2015-10-28, and date(substr(modified_date,1,10),"YMD") = date(2015-10-28,"YMD") yields the numerically encoded Stata date.

[Clyde Schechter]

Another way of getting the date variable is to extract it directly from datetime after the latter has been computed.

gen date = dofc(datetime)
format date %td

Added: Just to emphasize, it is essentially never correct to create a Stata date or datetime variable using -encode-.