Donald Spady wrote:
I have data that are string data and want to convert them to numeric. I
would expect destring to do this but it doesn't. For example, here is a
table
tab Worker_Type
worker Freq. Percent Cum.
Administration 12 9.16 9.16
Allied 44 33.59 42.75
Attending 26 19.85 62.60
Clerk 9 6.87 69.47
Med Student 17 12.98 82.44
Resident/Fellow 23 17.56 100.00
Total 131 100.00
The values are all strings.
When I do
Destring worker, generate(nworker)
I get the message
destring worker, gen(nworker)
worker contains nonnumeric characters; no generate
r; t=0.02 10:31:13
It seems to me that if I want to convert a string, that implicitly means
there are nonnumeric characters. What am I doing wrong? I am using
Stata10.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roughly stated, -destring- converts string numerals into numerical data.
It's not clear what you're expecting the numerical data version of worker
to be, but it seems as if you want something like -encode-.
Joseph Coveney
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
