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Re: st: RE: problem converting a string variable to a numeric variable
From
Nick Cox <[email protected]>
To
"[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject
Re: st: RE: problem converting a string variable to a numeric variable
Date
Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:56:37 +0100
For one overview of this territory see
SJ-2-3 pr0006 . . . . . . . . . . . . Speaking Stata: On numbers and strings
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N. J. Cox
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
See http://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf.html?articlenum=pr0006 for
accessible .pdf.
It's slightly out-of-date (-tostring- became an official command after
that paper) but the main ideas still apply.
Nick
[email protected]
On 25 April 2013 19:50, Gwinyai Masukume <[email protected]> wrote:
> Thanks Elan.
> Kind regards,
> Gwinyai
>
> On 4/25/13, Cohen, Elan <[email protected]> wrote:
>> -encode- is the wrong command for this job. (Read the help file more
>> closely to understand why.)
>>
>> Try -destring-.
>>
>> - Elan
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: [email protected]
>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Gwinyai Masukume
>> Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 13:18
>> To: statalist
>> Subject: st: problem converting a string variable to a numeric variable
>>
>> 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
>> *
>> * For searches and help try:
>> * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
>> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
>> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
>>
>>
>> *
>> * For searches and help try:
>> * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
>> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
>> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
>>
> *
> * For searches and help try:
> * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/