Re: st: solution to my question: separating string of fixed length into sections

["Ingo Brooks" <ingo.brooks@gmail.com>]

Michael,

If you would like to do this in just one line, try out Nick Cox's
-todate- program (in Stata type -net search todate-).

Have a good start into the new year.

Best,
Ingo



On 12/30/06, Michael McCulloch <mm@pinest.org> wrote:
> I'd like to share what I learned (and thanks to Maarten Buis who suggested
> using -destring- in combination with the floor function.)
>
> I have a date string which I'd like to convert to Stata date.
>
> Before I can use mdy() and date(), I need to split the string into sections:
>          the first four characters for year,
>          then the next two for month,
>          then the last two for day.
>
>
> . tostring datedx, replace
> . generate str4 dxyr = substr(datedx,1,4)
> . generate str2 dxmo = substr(datedx,5,6)
> . generate str2 dxda = substr(datedx,7,8)
> . destring dx*, replace
> . gen edate = mdy(dxmo, dxda, dxyr)
> . format edate %d
> . list datedx edate dxyr dxmo dxda in 1/5
>       +-------------------------------------------+
>       |   datedx       edate   dxyr   dxmo   dxda |
>       |-------------------------------------------|
>    1. | 19900417   17apr1990   1990      4     17 |
>    2. | 19880107   07jan1988   1988      1      7 |
>    3. | 19930407   07apr1993   1993      4      7 |
>    4. | 19880819   19aug1988   1988      8     19 |
>    5. | 19890127   27jan1989   1989      1     27 |
>       +-------------------------------------------+
>
>
>
> AND, Maarten's suggestion for using -destring- in combination with the
> floor function:
>
> You can achieve what you want by using the dates as numbers (i.e. use
> -destring- first) in combination with the floor function. See the
> example below:
>
> .destring datedx, replace
> .gen int year = floor(datedx/10000)
> .gen int month = floor((datedx-year*10000)/100)
> .gen int day = datedx - year*10000 - month*100
> .list datedx year month day in 1/5
>       +-------------------------------+
>       |   datedx   year   month   day |
>       |-------------------------------|
>    1. | 19900417   1990       4    17 |
>    2. | 19880107   1988       1     7 |
>    3. | 19930407   1993       4     7 |
>    4. | 19880819   1988       8    19 |
>    5. | 19890127   1989       1    27 |
>       +-------------------------------+
>
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
> Michael
>
>
> ____________________________________
>
> Michael McCulloch
> Pine Street Clinic
> Pine Street Foundation
> 124 Pine Street, San Anselmo, CA 94960-2674
> tel     415.407.1357
> fax     415.485.1065
> email:  mm@pinest.org
> web:    www.pinest.org
>          www.pinestreetfoundation.org
>          www.medepi.net/meta
>
>
>
>
>
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