Decode date to change format

[najiba etu]

Dear statlist,



Please find the data hereafter

I have a list of companies with different dates and I like to change the format from MDY to DMY;
When I use the following code :
gen new_date=date( Date , "DMY")

I have the following error :

type mismatch
r(109),

So i try to put the data in string (since it's numeric) with the following code:
. decode Date, gen DATE

But i have the error here :

Date not labeled
r(182);

When I use the following code

la variable Date Date

It doesn't work, the variable seem to be labelled but I still cant encode the variable

I think I don't manage to label my variable.
My final purpose is to have the variable date in format DD/MM/YYYY



Here is the data I am using:



[CODE]
* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input int(NOMBRE Company Date) double PRICE str58 Name str12 ISIN
1 1 17304 15.8 "MICROPOLE - PRICE INDEX" "FR0000077570"
2 1 17307 15.2 "MICROPOLE - PRICE INDEX" "FR0000077570"
3 1 17308 15.2 "MICROPOLE - PRICE INDEX" "FR0000077570"
4 1 17309 15.1 "MICROPOLE - PRICE INDEX" "FR0000077570"
5 1 17310 15.1 "MICROPOLE - PRICE INDEX" "FR0000077570"
6 1 17311 15.1 "MICROPOLE - PRICE INDEX" "FR0000077570"
7 1 17314 15.1 "MICROPOLE - PRICE INDEX" "FR0000077570"
8 1 17315 15.4 "MICROPOLE - PRICE INDEX" "FR0000077570"
9 1 17316 15.4 "MICROPOLE - PRICE INDEX" "FR0000077570"
10 1 17317 15.2 "MICROPOLE - PRICE INDEX" "FR0000077570"
11 1 17318 14.8 "MICROPOLE - PRICE INDEX" "FR0000077570"
12 1 17321 15 "MICROPOLE - PRICE INDEX" "FR0000077570"
--more--


Thanks a lot for your answer,
Best regards

[Nick Cox]

Your date variable is numeric and looks fine to me. For example, 17304 is 18 May 2007, for example.

. di %td 17304
18may2007

As it's numeric date() is, as you found, wrong and all the other ideas -- decode, encode, label -- are off target too. .

All you need, I think, is

format date . %tdDD/NN/CCYY

and then daily dates will be shown as you wish.

[Rich Goldstein]

your Date variable is already numeric and already in SIF; you appear to want to do

format Date %tdDD/NN/CCYY

in general, see

help datetime_display_formats