Compare date/time variables

[Dakota McAvoy]

With the following time/date variables as formatted below, how can I extract only the times (disregarding the dates) in a way that allows me to compare the times? I.e., test if one time comes before/after the other.

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input float timevar1 double timevar2
1.8855085e+12 54000000
1.8855085e+12 36000000
 1.917198e+12 21600000
 1.917198e+12 46800000
 1.886614e+12 23400000
 1.886614e+12 54000000
1.8858352e+12 21600000
1.8858211e+12 50400000
1.8827201e+12 18000000
end
format %tcHH:MM:SS timevar1
format %tcHH:MM_AM timevar2

[Andrew Musau]

You can extract the hour and minute using the -hh()- and -mm()- functions, respectively. See

help datetime

Note that datetime variables should always be stored as double.