st: Re: format

["Joseph Coveney" <jcoveney@bigplanet.com>]

Chiara Mussida wrote:

i have a string variable of 18 lenght. This is my id and i need it
numerical. I proceeded with destring and i got a numerical variable in
double format. I tried to get it in the format %18.0f, but i realised
that stata does not maintain the original number. It approx each
variable and in this way i cannot get a unique id Per individual. Do
you know whether it is a problem of wrong format?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is not a problem of the wrong format.  At the command line type:

    help data_types

and examine the precision of Stata's numerical data types.

I'm curious as to why you believe that you must store eighteen-character IDs as
numbers.  If you need to obtain a numerical ID for use of one of Stata's -xt-
commands, then you can use -encode-.

Joseph Coveney


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