This can be useful to add data that may not be used in the ensuing statistical analysis, such as graphing data. About asdoc asdoc is a stata program that makes it supereasy to send output from stata to ms word. This module may be installed from within stata by typing ssc install strdate. Stata faq converting dates entered as strings into numeric dates that can be used by stata is relatively simple. Stata module to split numeric variable into components, statistical software components s447901, boston college department of economics, revised 26 feb 2011. Fortunately, stata offers some easy ways for converting string to numeric variables and vice versa. How to count total number of string value occurrence per observation in stata.
Convert string variables to numeric variables and vice versa 157. You do the same thing to leftalign a numeric variable as you do a string variable. Only the variable s format is changed, the values are not affected. Here is one example where you need to preserve the numerical format for strings. We will download real data in their original formats and we will proceed from. Within stata, suppose the problematic string variable is named foo. We primarily distribute data files in eight data formats. First, use describe to reassure yourself that it is a string. Say that we have date variable in the following format and we want to convert it to stata format. If a variable is a string, the type will be str followed by some number. Once you have read this post, then you can read another post that lists a quick table of dates conversions from one frequency to another. The easiest way to convert string variables to numeric form is to use the encode command. The easiest way to tell if this is the case is to look at the variables window. The first line of syntax reads in the dataset shown above.
Copying data from the internet, csv files, or other sources into stata will record the date as a string variable, shown with red color. When stata does this, the number will look right when you browse, but attempts to run commands will turn up zero observations. Apr 12, 2014 in destring complication, anup asked how to split a string variable. Using functions we will describe below, you translate the original into the integers that stata understands and store those values in a new variable. Stata module to convert a matrix to variables in an. Hello everyone, i am looking for the following, a magic command which would do something like this, it would create a string. All these columns will import as string values when they should be numeric, because of the missing values, so you wont be able to make any calculations without fixing the data. Stata module to replace string date variables with. Stata module to convert a matrix to variables in an output dataset, statistical software components s457018, boston college department of economics, revised 11 apr 2020. To leftalign the variable state i manually inspect the storage type to identify the length and then change the display format.
Reed college stata help changing string variables to. Variables containing stringscalled string variablesoccur in data for a variety. List of column names to convert to string columns to stata strl format. A stata date is simply a number, but with the %td format applied stata will interpret that number as number of days since january 1, 1960. Usually, when we import data manually into the stata editor, the dates. It seems that at times you pull off some really wild string formatting, and i have yet to see it documented very well. Although it seems like region is a string variable, it is really a numeric variable with an attached value label. Working with dates in stata university of wisconsin. How to create a date variable from a date stored as a string. How can i convert string variables to numeric variables in stata. There are two steps involved to convert the numeric variable to stata format.
For example, if you type reshape long after you have reshaped the data to be wide, stata will revert the data. I had a big dataset on prescriptions in patients in wide stata format. Although the variable science is defined as str2, you can see from the list below that it contains just numeric values. Tostring string from a numerical variable there is no problem with negative signs. Create a new variable that associates each individual with the average number of hours worked among individuals with matching educational degrees see the last by example for inspiration. Often when importing data, stata can mistake a numeric variable for a string variable. What kind of data formats does the archive distribute. Before we can use the stata timeseries or paneldata capabilities, we need to convert the string date to a stata date. Stata 11 introduced a variables manager that allows editing variable names, labels, types, formats, and notes, as well as value labels, using an intuitive graphical user interface available under datavariables manager in the menu system.
It then alphabetizes that list and assigns numeric codes to each entry. Recode the marital variable into a string variable and then back into a numeric variable. Even though stata can handly string variables, it is clear in many respects that numeric variables are much preferred. A string representing a categorical variable stata. How can i turn a string variable containing dates into a date variable stata can recognize. From string to stata format this blog post discusses the conversion of text into stata date. Storing strings in the strl format can produce smaller dta files if strings have more than 8 characters and values are repeated. The other useful option is string which tells stata that the the variable specified in j is a string variable. How to count total number of string value occurrence per. How to convert numeric date to stata date stataprofessor. Not least, most statistical procedures just do not accept string variables. If the variable is actually a numeric value that just happens to be stored as a string, see our faq.
You specify the appropriate display format for the new variable so that, rather than displaying. We wish to run a regression of high blood pressure on race, sex, and age group. His problem is how to extract the state, districts, etc. Suppose you have a 6digit numeric observation id, code, where the first 2 digits represent geographic code and the last 4 digits represent unique observation codes, and you want to generate a new variable, reg, that represents the 2digit geographic code. Even so, because the variable is defined as str2, stata cannot perform any kind of numerical analysis of the variable science. This is a case where we want to create value labels for the numeric variable based on the string variable. The stata blog import covid19 data from johns hopkins.
In preserving numerical format after string transformation, we used substr to generate a new variable that contains the first 2digits of a numerical code. Stata allows data to be entered directly through the keyboard with the input command, even when another dataset is already in memory. One method of converting numbers stored as strings into numerical variables is to use a string function called real that translates numeric values stored as strings into numeric values stata can recognize as such. How can i quickly convert many string variables to numeric. Show 10digit v1 as whole numbers with commas format v1 %15.
Quick table for converting different dates to stata format. The default download settings indicate missing values with two periods, like so. However, i thought maybe it is possible to change the format afterwards. Reed college stata help reshaping your data in stata. How can i turn a string variable containing dates into a date. In this case, you want to convert the actual variable, not the format type see here. How to prepare panel data in stata and make panel data regression in stata. Lets type confirm variable again to see what happens if the variable iprovincestate is not in our dataset.
How to convert categorical string variables to labeled numeric variables. But stata records missing values as a single period. If you dont have a table of ascii codes handy, you can download. While the manager is certainly convenient, i still prefer writing all commands in a do file to ensure. In his case, he has a variable of the form 28180018021832ob where 28 represents state code, 18 represents districts code, 0018 represents subdistricts code and 02183100 represents village code. Spss string variables tutorial quickly master the basics and run some. How can i quickly convert many string variables to numeric variables. Title, converting other format files into stata dataset files. The file extension should be changed from doc to do. Stata plugins to java libraries that provide utilities for analyzing, parsing, andor working with string data more generally. Import and export data in sas xport version 5 format 464. Microsoft scripting guy, ed wilson, talks about understanding windows powershell and basic string formatting. Github compress after converting string variables to strl github.
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