Storage types are str6 and str, and display formats are %9s and %s, respectively. How to destring nonnumerical values within stata quora. Ive read about the format procedure in codys book and i dont really understand it. To convert from string to numeric data in stata, you have your choice between. I have a dataset with a date variable that is in long format. The default option is valid, which means that the empty string will be coded as a valid value in the new numeric variable. The ymd specifies how the datevar has the sorting of year, month, and day. How to convert numeric to string in spss listendata. Stata module to decode a numeric variable into a string variable, statistical software components s417702, boston college department of economics, revised 30 sep 20. Destring data that contains non numeric characters. As you have seen, to convert a vector or variable with the character class to numeric is no problem. 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. Similarly, for gz variable, i want to construct a numeric variable gz1 with ny replaced by 01, respectively.
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. Written and illustrated tutorials for the statistical software spss. The first line of code converts the numeric variable to string variable. Spss how to convert string variables into numeric ones. Stata is reading in my variables as string instead of numeric. String data is commonand examples include geographical information,gender information, think m, think f,or possibly date. Converting string dates to a numeric date difficult dates are often given in data sets as string variables e. Notice, if it matters to you that this does not convert a numeric variable to a string variable.
You can also use the missing option, causing blank string values to be autorecoded. The only variable that meets these criteria is stringdate1. How can i convert string variables to numeric variables in. 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. I want to convert the numeric date variable cdint type. Instructor in this session,were going to explore string variables,and learn how can use stata to manipulate string information. 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. As a small matter of history, stata s variable types were not all available from the beginning. 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. I need help with changing a variable from numeric to string. If you have a string variable that has only numbers in it, then you can alternatively use the real function. So far ive written a loop to do this, but cant use substr since daten is a numeric variable.
Basic video for converting many string variables to numeric using encode syntax in stata. This example uses put function to convert numeric data to character data. We wish to run a regression of high blood pressure on race, sex, and age group. Otherwise, you can use encode to convert string data into a numeric variable or decode to convert numeric variables to strings. A very basic question i would appreciate help with. The program can process a large number of cases more efficiently with the numeric variable nsex than it can with the string variable sex. When you use a numeric variable in a string context, sas will interpret it as a character value if it makes sense. You can only tell the type of a variable by using the describe command.
Code is the variable name and a12 indicates string variable with width 12 3. String processing is fairly easy in stata because of the many builtin string functions. Before we can use the stata timeseries or paneldata capabilities, we need to convert the string date to a stata date. Convert spss string variables into numeric ones the right way. Hi people, i wanna generate a variable string from a numerical variable that has. The first line of syntax reads in the dataset shown above. How can i graph string and numeric variables together in stata. 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. I have a variable state that takes integer values from 11 to 99. In a case where your string variables are in fact strings e. Convert character to numeric in r example for string. 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. Users of any of the software, ideas, data, or other materials published in the. 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.
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. However, you can only change a string variable to a shorter string type. I tried to change the length for this imported dataset, but it failed. The following document provides an example of how to create string variables from numeric variables, and then concatenate string variables into one. How to convert a string variable to a numeric variable duration. Basic video for converting many string variables to numeric using encode syntax in stata with using loops. How to convert string into numeric form in spss without. The put function writes values with a specified format. Copying data from the internet, csv files, or other sources into stata will record the date as a string variable, shown with red color. First off, you can convert a string into a numeric variable in variable view as shown below. How can i create a string variable statestring that would have string values without all those numeric values.
Running this command will cause stata to make a new numeric categorical variable wherein the data has labels that correspond to the old string. Changing string variables to numbers in stata pradeep ramulu. We will show some examples of how to use regular expression to extract andor replace a portion of a string variable using. 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. Jul 15, 2016 in this video i show you how to convert text data into numeric data. I want to convert it into a string variable indstr, that goes from 01 as opposed to 0 to 20. Even though stata can handly string variables, it is clear in many respects that numeric variables are much preferred.
However, sometimes it makes sense to change all character columns of a data frame or matrix to numeric. What command can i use here to extract the 35 characters. As example, suppose we have the variables var1, var2, and var3. Fortunately, stata offers some easy ways for converting string to numeric variables and vice versa.
How can i turn a string variable containing dates into a date. The second line of code uses the date function to generate a new variable date2 from the existing variable datevar. Or looking at the manual pdf for destring tostring. Odd numbers of characters in string variables were soon allowed in stata 2. You can always change a string variable to a longer string type. If you have a string variable that has only numbers in. Sep 27, 2016 this feature is not available right now. This is an example of how to change a numeric variable, id, to character variable. In spss, recoding categorical string variables to numeric codes and converting blank strings to missing values can be done automatically using automatic recode. For stata, a string is any data characterthat is not a number or missing value denoted by the full stop. How to convert numeric date to stata date stataprofessor. If for some reason you want to convert a numeric variable into a string variable, you may use the complementary function decode. Since the default variable type in spss is numeric, you need to define your string variable in advance.
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. Once the data is entered into stata, it automatically defines the storage type of the data. The videos help you convert from string to numeric, change variable type and finally gives you the basic tools in stata. Mar 01, 2018 have you tried typing code help destringcode. In spss, to convert a numeric variable to a string variable, use the string function. Change a string variable to a numeric variable duration. Numeric to character the easy way i have a numeric variable, but i want it to be character. Converting numeric date variable to string variable. 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. There may be times that you receive a file that has many or all of the variables defined as strings, that is. Oct 05, 2010 to concatenate is to join the characters of 2 or more variables from end to end.
String numeric type variable, format returns the value of the numeric expression as a string. Sometimes you may need to convert between numeric and string variables. 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. Example 4 we have a numeric variable named female that records the values 0 and 1. Stata, like most software, holds numeric data to finite precision and in binary. The following document provides an example of how to. Since string cannot be used for analysis, it should be converted to numeric. Aug 23, 2012 coding of string variable in stata imran sunesara. Quickly master the trick with a stepbystep example on downloadable practice data. Its a numeric variable, but stata is still reading it as a string variable.
How to convert string into numeric form in spss without losing the data. An example of when one might need to do this is if they needed to append. Reed college stata help changing string variables to. Jul, 2017 convert variables from string to numeric in stata earnings management data. 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. How to generate a string variable out of a labeled numeric. 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. Even so, because the variable is defined as str2, stata cannot perform any kind of numerical analysis of the variable science. Remember that in a string variable, a missing value is a null, or empty, string. The begin data and end data commands enclose the raw data.
Not surprisingly, stata requires the numeric variable to be labeled. The following document provides an example of how to create. Quick table for converting different dates to stata format. How can i extract a portion of a string variable using. Among these string functions are three functions that are related to regular expressions, regexm for matching, regexr for replacing and regexs for subexpressions. How do i read convert an inputstream into a string in java.
Ive tried converting some variables in a dataset of about 200k observations from string to numeric the following ways. I have a variable shiftstart that is a numeric variable in the format 01jan2014 06. How can i quickly convert many string variables to numeric. 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. It then alphabetizes that list and assigns numeric codes to each entry. Conversion of numeric data to string equivalents can be problematic. How to convert a string variable to a numeric variable. Dec 01, 2016 this video demonstrates how to convert categorical string variables to labeled numeric variables. The easiest way to convert string variables to numeric form is to use the encode command.
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. Recoding text strings and then converting to numeric. If the actual values of the var dont matter like categorical variables you could look at creating a new variable based on groups. How can i quickly convert many string variables to numeric variables. Watch how to convert a string variable to a numeric variable. Hi, i have a numeric variable, ind which goes from 1 to 20. It is important to realise that the variables have the same values, just different display formats. 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. How can i turn a string variable containing dates into a. Luckily, i can use a concatenation function like cats or catx on it, and it becomes a character variable. Recode recodes the string variable sex into the numeric variable nsex. Originally, variables could only be numeric, although value labels were possible.
Changing string variables to numbers in stata youtube. If the variable is actually a numeric value that just happens to be stored as a string, see our faq. 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. Hi people, i wanna generate a variable string from a numerical variable that has negative signe in front of the number. Some users of excel or similar programs get in the habit of putting several lines of header.
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. In spss, how do i convert between numeric variables and. Converting numeric into string using the value labels. Im on mobile right now, but i think there is a group function associated with egen. Youll need to identify the non numeric characters and replace them. I suspect you want to do this but without seeing your variable names its just. If you have a string variable and want to convert it to a numeric variable, you can use the encode command. In stata, this can be done by using either gen or egen. Stata always codes them as string although they are numeric in excel. This video demonstrates how to convert categorical string variables to labeled numeric variables. Im fairly new to stata and i have data that i cannot seem to convert from strings to numbers. Also, the replace option of tostring doesnt take other parameters.