Gen indicator variable if greater than a particular date

[Scott Rick]

Hi. I am trying to generate an indicator variable (platform=1) that is conditional on a string variable (campus) and if the date is greater than 16 February 2024. My date variable is a float, format %td (data below). I've tried

gen int platform=1 if campus=="MTC" & appt_date==>date("16022024","DMY")

, but that doesn't work.

Any help will be much appreciated

input str23 campus float appt_date
"MTC"  22646
"KAR"  22646
"MTC"  22646
"KAR"  22646
"KVC"  22646
"KVC"  22646
"MTC"  22646
"KAR"  22646
"KVC"  22646
"GMRV" 22646
"KVC"  22646
"KAR"  22646
"KVC"  22646
"KVC"  22646
"KAR"  22646
"MTC"  22646
"KVC"  22646
"KVC"  22646
"KAR"  22646
"KAR"  22646
"KAR"  22646
"MTC"  22646
"GMRV" 22646
"KVC"  22646
"KAR"  22646
"GMRV" 22646
"MTC"  22646
"KVC"  22646
"KAR"  22646
"KVC"  22646
"KVC"  22646
"KAR"  22646
"GMRV" 22646
"KVC"  22646
"KVC"  22646
"KAR"  22646
"KVC"  22646
"KAR"  22646
"MTC"  22646

[Joseph Coveney]

Try changing ==> to >= .

generate byte platform = campus == "MTC" & appt_date >= date("2024-02-16", "YMD")

[Nick Cox]

In the spirit of Joseph Coveney's helpful suggestion, know that

help operators

does what it claims. I would go

generate byte platform = campus == "MTC" & appt_date >= mdy(2, 16, 2024)

myself on the small grounds that giving the code a numeric argument beats giving it a string argument and then obliging Stata to convert. I am not recommending using 23422, as anyone reading the code later then has to puzzle out what that means.

[Joseph Coveney]

. . . if the date is greater than 16 February 2024.

In light of that, make the inequality strict.

Following Nick's suggestion,

generate byte platform = campus == "MTC" & appt_date > mdy(2, 16, 2024)

[Scott Rick]

Thanks Nick Cox and Joseph Coveney. That worked perfectly!