st: destring

["Seyda G Wentworth" <WentworthS@GAO.GOV>]

Dear stata,
I need to create a numeric variable (numvar) out of a string (stringvar) to be able to say things like:

sum x y z if numvar==5

The string variable is a code  with values such as 0107, 0256, etc. How can I make it numeric without loosing the "0" in front? In other words I want to keep all the digits.
Thank you.


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