st: imputing dates into a string date

[Tim Evans <Tim.Evans@wmciu.nhs.uk>]

Hi all,

I have dates in the form DMY in a string variable 

i.e. 22/01/2010

I am generating numerical dates using the following code:

generate double dx2 = date(dx, "DMY")
format %tdDD/NN/CCYY dx2

This is working fine, until I come across a date that actually starts like this:

xx/01/2010

Then my code to generate a date returns a blank. What I would like to do is add in something that allows me to evaluate whether the day is xx and if so, insert 01.

Am I to assume I need something like regexm 



if regexm(dx2, "^XX") == 1
	replace"XX" = 01

else 
generate double dx2 = date(dx, "DMY")
format %tdDD/NN/CCYY dx2


If you have any ideas, that would be great.

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