Re: st: problem converting a string variable to a numeric variable

["Roger B. Newson" <r.newson@imperial.ac.uk>]

I think you need -destring- here. Type -help destring- to find out more.

Or you might even want to type

gene weightgrams=real(weight)

which may have the same effect, if your string values are all 
well-formed numbers with no commas or other awkward characters.

Best wishes

Roger

Roger B Newson BSc MSc DPhil
Lecturer in Medical Statistics
Respiratory Epidemiology and Public Health Group
National Heart and Lung Institute
Imperial College London
Royal Brompton Campus
Room 33, Emmanuel Kaye Building
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London SW3 6LR
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44 (0)20 7352 8121 ext 3381
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Email: r.newson@imperial.ac.uk
Web page: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/nhli/r.newson/
Departmental Web page:
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Opinions expressed are those of the author, not of the institution.

On 25/04/2013 18:17, Gwinyai Masukume wrote:
> Dear Stata listers,
>
> I have a variable weight. The original dataset has weight as a string
> variable. Type - str13
> Format - %13s.
>
> encode weight, generate(weightgrams)
>
> The above code apparently creates a numeric variable weightgrams.
> Type - long
> Format - %13.0g
>
> However when dealing with this new variable e.g summ weightgrams, I get
> completely abnormal results which bear no resemblance to the expected
> results for the variable weight.
>
> I suspect there is some kind of error in conversion from a string to
> numeric variable.
>
> I am using version 12.1
>
> Kind regards,
> Gwinyai
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