You really need to do some reading on Stata basics! For example, as a
person working with medical data working through Svend Juul's book would
be excellent for you.
The format %9s is a string format. It implies that the variable is a
string variable. Thus Stata won't let you change the format to a numeric
format.
Even if Stata let you do that, changing how a variable is displayed does
not change how a variable is stored.
You need to convert this variable to a numeric variable using
-destring-.
See for a tutorial on numeric and string
SJ-2-3 pr0006 . . . . . . . . . . . . Speaking Stata: On numbers and
strings
Q3/02 SJ 2(3):314--329 (no
commands)
explains the use of numeric and string data types in Stata
and how to convert from one kind to another
You can find that on-line as a .pdf regardless of whether you or your
institution subscribe to the Stata Journal.
Nick
[email protected]
Ziad El-Khatib
For strange reasons one of the variables (diarr) (coded 1/2) has
format %9s so I can not use it when putting it in a sum formula in
STATA.
I tried to change its format using edit command, I looked at another
variable format it has property %8.0g so I tried using it for diarr
variable but it gives window with message "%8.0g is not a valid
display format".
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