You can also use the missing option, causing blank string values to be autorecoded. When i want to merge this dataset with the other one, there is a warning that the length of year in these two datasets are different. To convert from string to numeric data in stata, you have your choice between. Youll need to identify the non numeric characters and replace them.
Storage types are str6 and str, and display formats are %9s and %s, respectively. How can i quickly convert many string variables to numeric. Apr 28, 2017 i want to recode the string variable t into numerical variable, say t1, with values denoted in the corresponding parenthesis, and are replaced by the standard. In a case where your string variables are in fact strings e. On one hand, it looks like an spss recode command to change the numeric text combos to string numerics plus an alter type command to convert the string variable to a samenamed numeric f format variable. Since string cannot be used for analysis, it should be converted to numeric. Originally, variables could only be numeric, although value labels were possible. How to convert string into numeric form in spss without. I have a variable shiftstart that is a numeric variable in the format 01jan2014 06. How do i read convert an inputstream into a string in java. The ymd specifies how the datevar has the sorting of year, month, and day.
Basic video for converting many string variables to numeric using encode syntax in stata. The videos help you convert from string to numeric, change variable type and finally gives you the basic tools in stata. Spss how to convert string variables into numeric ones. If you have a string variable and want to convert it to a numeric variable, you can use the encode command. Since the default variable type in spss is numeric, you need to define your string variable in advance. Among these string functions are three functions that are related to regular expressions, regexm for matching, regexr for replacing and regexs for subexpressions. If you have a string variable that has only numbers in. Even though stata can handly string variables, it is clear in many respects that numeric variables are much preferred. The easiest way to convert string variables to numeric form is to use the encode command. How can i turn a string variable containing dates into a date. Converting string dates to a numeric date difficult dates are often given in data sets as string variables e.
Ive tried converting the numeric variables to string 01jan1982 to string but just got a bunch of numbers, which prevent me from identifying the month correctly. As you have seen, to convert a vector or variable with the character class to numeric is no problem. Convert spss string variables into numeric ones the right way. Note that while using list, and some other data display commands, produces values that look like string dates, the actual values stored by stata are numeric. Once the data is entered into stata, it automatically defines the storage type of the data. If you have any questions please feel free to post them in the comments section below and i will get back to you as soon as i can. Hi people, i wanna generate a variable string from a numerical variable that has negative signe in front of the number. Even so, because the variable is defined as str2, stata cannot perform any kind of numerical analysis of the variable science. It then alphabetizes that list and assigns numeric codes to each entry. How to generate a string variable out of a labeled numeric. The next alter type command converts all string variables between stringdate1 and stringdate3 in file order with a defined string width of 11 to the numeric date format date11 ddmmmyyyy. Luckily, i can use a concatenation function like cats or catx on it, and it becomes a character variable. Also, the replace option of tostring doesnt take other parameters.
Conversion of numeric data to string equivalents can be problematic. If you have a string variable that has only numbers in it, then you can alternatively use the real function. Otherwise, you can use encode to convert string data into a numeric variable or decode to convert numeric variables to strings. One method of converting numbers stored as strings into numerical variables is to use a string function called real that translates numeric values stored as strings into numeric values stata can recognize as such. Similarly, for gz variable, i want to construct a numeric variable gz1 with ny replaced by 01, respectively. How can i turn a string variable containing dates into a.
However, sometimes it makes sense to change all character columns of a data frame or matrix to numeric. Recode recodes the string variable sex into the numeric variable nsex. The begin data and end data commands enclose the raw data. I need help with changing a variable from numeric to string. Users of any of the software, ideas, data, or other materials published in the. Watch how to convert a string variable to a numeric variable. How can i quickly convert many string variables to numeric variables. Converting string variables to numeric spss code fragments this shows how to convert a string variable race to a numeric variable racen using two methods, the first a bit simpler but more cumbersome, the second method more streamlined but a bit trickier. Converting numeric into string using the value labels. Running this command will cause stata to make a new numeric categorical variable wherein the data has labels that correspond to the old string. When you use a numeric variable in a string context, sas will interpret it as a character value if it makes sense.
I suspect you want to do this but without seeing your variable names its just. Oct 05, 2010 to concatenate is to join the characters of 2 or more variables from end to end. The following document provides an example of how to create string variables from numeric variables, and then concatenate string variables into one. How to generate a string variable out of a labeled numeric variable stata. An example of when one might need to do this is if they needed to append several variable sets together, and they needed a unique identifier the included information about the source data set. The following document provides an example of how to create. I want to convert it into a string variable indstr, that goes from 01 as opposed to 0 to 20. I have a dataset with a date variable that is in long format. How to convert a string variable to a numeric variable.
Hi, i have a numeric variable, ind which goes from 1 to 20. In spss, recoding categorical string variables to numeric codes and converting blank strings to missing values can be done automatically using automatic recode. Also, in general, that as the values are just multiples of 60 000 milliseconds and float is adequate, in general anything that comes out of. Or looking at the manual pdf for destring tostring. Recoding text strings and then converting to numeric. For stata, a string is any data characterthat is not a number or missing value denoted by the full stop. The command to create a new numeric date variable from a string variable and format the new variable so it displays as a date are. I want to convert the numeric date variable cdint type. If the variable is actually a numeric value that just happens to be stored as a string, see our faq.
Changing a numeric to a string variable in stata stack. In stata, this can be done by using either gen or egen. Fortunately, stata offers some easy ways for converting string to numeric variables and vice versa. Destring data that contains non numeric characters. In spss, to convert a numeric variable to a string variable, use the string function. If for some reason you want to convert a numeric variable into a string variable, you may use the complementary function decode. Basic video for converting many string variables to numeric using encode syntax in stata with using loops. Stata is reading in my variables as string instead of numeric. It is important to realise that the variables have the same values, just different display formats. Change a string variable to a numeric variable duration.
How to destring nonnumerical values within stata quora. I have a variable state that takes integer values from 11 to 99. Odd numbers of characters in string variables were soon allowed in stata 2. As example, suppose we have the variables var1, var2, and var3. Im fairly new to stata and i have data that i cannot seem to convert from strings to numbers. Numeric to character the easy way i have a numeric variable, but i want it to be character. How can i extract a portion of a string variable using. Hi people, i wanna generate a variable string from a numerical variable that has. However sometimes the variables which has numerical value is taken as string variable. Code is the variable name and a12 indicates string variable with width 12 3. Aug 23, 2012 coding of string variable in stata imran sunesara. The destring function is a good example of statas builtin functions having a knack for knowing what youre trying to do and providing a pretty.
This example uses put function to convert numeric data to character data. How can i create a string variable statestring that would have string values without all those numeric values. Changing string variables to numbers in stata youtube. So i thought of converting every single variable from string to numeric with the gencommand and then copy the data from excel again to the created numeric variables into the data editor, but it also did not work out so easily when copying it. Sometimes you may need to convert between numeric and string variables. Some users of excel or similar programs get in the habit of putting several lines of header. The first line of syntax reads in the dataset shown above. A very basic question i would appreciate help with. First off, you can convert a string into a numeric variable in variable view as shown below.
The only variable that meets these criteria is stringdate1. Copying data from the internet, csv files, or other sources into stata will record the date as a string variable, shown with red color. I want to change this to a string variable so that i can then substring it and create variables based on just date and just time separately. We will show some examples of how to use regular expression to extract andor replace a portion of a string variable using. If the actual values of the var dont matter like categorical variables you could look at creating a new variable based on groups. In spss, how do i convert between numeric variables and. Jul, 2017 convert variables from string to numeric in stata earnings management data. You can always change a string variable to a longer string type. Stata always codes them as string although they are numeric in excel. As in a previous answer of yours i like to encourage use of daily rather than date having come across numerous instances where people did not study the help and presumed that date was a generic date function, whereas it has one purpose only, to produce numeric daily dates.
Ive read about the format procedure in codys book and i dont really understand it. I have already tried the conversion from string to numeric option, but it says that it is already in numeric format so it cannot convert it. Ive tried converting some variables in a dataset of about 200k observations from string to numeric the following ways. The put function writes values with a specified format. Quick table for converting different dates to stata format. Running this command will cause stata to make a new numeric categorical variable wherein the data has labels that correspond to the old string values. The program can process a large number of cases more efficiently with the numeric variable nsex than it can with the string variable sex. How to convert a string variable to a numeric variable duration. Although the variable science is defined as str2, you can see from the list below that it contains just numeric values. The following document provides an example of how to. How can i graph string and numeric variables together in stata. There may be times that you receive a file that has many or all of the variables defined as strings, that is. String numeric type variable, format returns the value of the numeric expression as a string.
The first line of code converts the numeric variable to string variable. Convert character to numeric in r example for string. Im on mobile right now, but i think there is a group function associated with egen. The second command formats the numeric value so that when stata displays the date, it is in a form that is easy for humans to read. Stata, like most software, holds numeric data to finite precision and in binary.
However, you can only change a string variable to a shorter string type. Stata module to decode a numeric variable into a string variable, statistical software components s417702, boston college department of economics, revised 30 sep 20. Not surprisingly, stata requires the numeric variable to be labeled. I tried to change the length for this imported dataset, but it failed. Quickly master the trick with a stepbystep example on downloadable practice data. So far ive written a loop to do this, but cant use substr since daten is a numeric variable. Example 4 we have a numeric variable named female that records the values 0 and 1. Jul 15, 2016 in this video i show you how to convert text data into numeric data. Converting numeric variables to character variables ciser.
How to convert numeric to string in spss listendata. Dec 01, 2016 this video demonstrates how to convert categorical string variables to labeled numeric variables. February 1, 1960 or 211960 in order to use stata time series commands and tsset this needs to be converted to a number that stat understands. You can only tell the type of a variable by using the describe command. An example of when one might need to do this is if they needed to append. The second line of code uses the date function to generate a new variable date2 from the existing variable datevar. Instructor in this session,were going to explore string variables,and learn how can use stata to manipulate string information. If a variable has been read as a string but really contains numbers you will want to use the command destring or the function real. This is necessary as the date function can work only on string variables. Written and illustrated tutorials for the statistical software spss.
String processing is fairly easy in stata because of the many builtin string functions. Sep 27, 2016 this feature is not available right now. How to convert string into numeric form in spss without losing the data. Before we can use the stata timeseries or paneldata capabilities, we need to convert the string date to a stata date. Reed college stata help changing string variables to. This is an example of how to change a numeric variable, id, to character variable. Mar 01, 2018 have you tried typing code help destringcode.
How can i convert string variables to numeric variables in. Converting numeric date variable to string variable. Its a numeric variable, but stata is still reading it as a string variable. As a small matter of history, stata s variable types were not all available from the beginning. How to convert numeric date to stata date stataprofessor. What command can i use here to extract the 35 characters. String data is commonand examples include geographical information,gender information, think m, think f,or possibly date. This video demonstrates how to convert categorical string variables to labeled numeric variables. Changing string variables to numbers in stata pradeep ramulu.