convert from unix/epoch time

[Hana Nikai]

I am trying to convert from unix/epoch time to stata time.
My timestamp data is like below.

Type: Numeric (double)
Range: [1.697e+12, 1.697e+12] Units: 1000

Mean: 1.7e+12
Std. dev.: 2.0e+07

Percentiles: 10% 25% 50% 75% 90%
1.7e+12 1.7e+12 1.7e+12 1.7e+12 1.7e+12

I tried the following command, but the result remains unreadable.

gen double statatime=timestamp*1000+mdyhms(1,1,1970,0,0,0)
format %tc statatime

result:

Type: Numeric (double)
Range: [1.697e+15,1.697e+15] Units: 100000

I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me how to convert unix/epoch data.

Best regards,

[Clyde Schechter]

I think your code is completely correct, and I believe it is working properly.

The problem is that you are trying to look at it in the output of the -codebook- command. -codebook- is a very old Stata command that precedes Stata's adoption of datetime variables. It does not have the capability of displaying numbers in %tc format, so what you see is the underlying double-precision floating point number, rounded to a small number of significant figures. The same limitation almost applies to the -summarize- output you show. The difference is that if you add the -format- option to your -summarize- command it will display the results in %tc format.

If you want to visually verify that your code has worked, run -browse statatime- and there you will be able to see it properly displayed in %tc format.

[Scott Merryman]

Do you need to multiple the Unix time by 1000?

. disp  1697217553000
1.697e+12

. disp  %tc (1697217553000 + mdyhms(1,1,1970,0,0,0) )
13oct2023 17:19:13

[Hana Nikai]

Thank you! I was able to succeed following your advice. (by dropping the multiplication of the Unix time by 1000 and not seeing codebook).