Convert a string variable to a date variable

[DY Kim]

I have weekly data as below. Would you please help me convert the string variable to a date variable? Thank you.

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input str10 dateid01
"2018-01-01"
"2018-01-08"
"2018-01-15"
"2018-01-22"
"2018-01-29"
"2018-02-05"
"2018-02-12"
"2018-02-19"
"2018-02-26"
"2018-03-05"
end

[Nick Cox]

See

help datetime

for the main ideas.

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input str10 dateid01
"2018-01-01"
"2018-01-08"
"2018-01-15"
"2018-01-22"
"2018-01-29"
"2018-02-05"
"2018-02-12"
"2018-02-19"
"2018-02-26"
"2018-03-05"
end

gen ddate = daily(dateid01, "YMD") 
format ddate %td

The fact that your dates are weekly is not a problem. Just make sure that you declare delta(7) to tsset or xtset.