st: parsing a variable positionally

[Rufus Peabody <rufus.peabody@gmail.com>]

Hey all,

I'm trying to convert a variable into a date.  Ordinarily, this would  
be simple using Stata's date() functions, but one of my variables  
contains both month and date (i.e. 403 is April 3rd), while another  
contains year.  I'm trying to split the month+date variable into two  
variables by parsing after the first character.  I tried converting  
the variable to a string and using the "split" command, but it does  
not allow me to parse positionally; it merely allows me to specify a  
parsing character.  Is there a way to parse by position?

Thanks,

Rufus
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