Michael, I think the substr function can help, assuming all your
strings are the same number of characters:
. input str10 datestr
datestr
1. 01991994
2. 99011994
3. 99991994
4. 03151994
5. end
. replace datestr="01"+substr(datestr, 3, 8) if substr(datestr, 1, 2)=="99"
(2 real changes made)
. replace datestr=substr(datestr, 1, 2)+"01"+substr(datestr, 5, 4) if
substr(datestr, 3, 2)=="99"
(2 real changes made)
. list
+----------+
| datestr |
|----------|
1. | 01011994 |
2. | 01011994 |
3. | 01011994 |
4. | 03151994 |
+----------+
Hope this helps, Tim
On 11/3/07, Michael McCulloch <[email protected]> wrote:
> Dear Statalist members,
> How can I replace characters at specific locations within an
> eight-character string?
>
> I'm using -todate- with mostly good success to convert an
> eight-character string to Stata date, except when a month or day
> within that string is unknown. That would be coded "99", as in:
> "01991994", for "some day in January, 1994"
>
> I'd like to edit that string to "01011994". Can this be done?
>
> Tangentially, my code is:
> todate datevar, gen(newdatevar) p(mmddyyyy) f(%dd_m_cy)
> format datechemo %d
>
> Thank you,
> Michael
>
>
>
> --
>
> Michael McCulloch
> Pine Street Foundation
> 124 Pine St., San Anselmo, CA 94960-2674
> Tel: (415) 407-1357
> Fax: (415) 485-1065
> [email protected]
>
> *
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>
*
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