You could specify appends force option to ignore this string numeric mismatch. To convert string variables into numerical variables by. Converting country codes in stata and r irina mirkina. Unlike decode, sdecode creates an output string variable containing the values of the input variable as output by the list command and other stata output, instead of decoding all unlabelled input values to missing. There are three ways to convert a string to float primitive in java parsefloat, valueof method of float class and new float constructor. Dec, 2018 stata command to download data from the wid. You can only tell the type of a variable by using the describe command. Below we give basic demonstrations using r, sas, spss and stata to perform the reshaping demonstrated above. Long is a pod type not a class so it has no methods. Stata is a complete, integrated statistical software package created by statacorp lp. In the following table, the first column shows different date formats in which the date is already recorded and brought into stata. Stata datasets are rectangular arrays with n observations on m variables.
In stata this is often true because stata treats string encoded variables as missing and will not use them in analyses. What you need to convert a dta file to a pdf file or how you can create a pdf version from your dta file. Values not defined by the mapping are generated as missing. But you dont need to convert to a string, the cout object knows how to handle longs so you can just. How can i convert a string variable to a double or viceversa. The first line of syntax reads in the dataset shown above.
Reshape world development indicators for panel data analysis. The default format for the data download from wdi is very inconvenient for panel data analysis. And if converting any numeric variable to string would result in loss of. Even though stata can handly string variables, it is clear in many respects that numeric variables are much preferred. 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. Stata will ignore this character and convert it to missing value. If you wrote a script to perform an analysis in 1985, that same script will still run and still produce the same results today. Install ssc install traveltime3 traveltime3 requires insheetjson, which in turn requires libjson. I want to take this field and split it into 3 new variables activity1, activity2, activity3each with length3 so the data will look something like this. We are starting with the worksheet initial download. Its identical to the wide format data displayed above. You wont be able to convert it directly to long because of the decimal point i think you should convert it into decimal and then convert it into long something like this. To be able to perform any mathematical operations, your variables need to be in a numeric format.
Spss does not support direct import of datasets in recent stata formats. Say we have data on 500 patients stored in our stata dataset patients. There may be times that you receive a file that has many or all of the variables defined as strings, that is. How can i quickly convert many string variables to numeric variables. We will download real data in their original formats and we will proceed from there. Thank you very much for the quick reply and is very much helpful in converting the numeric variable to string variable. The date function takes two arguments, the string to be converted, and a. So, i tried using the force option but then stata replaces part of the code by missing values. Typing in data, changing variable names, adding labels, and adding values duration. How to convert numeric date to stata date stataprofessor.
You could specify appends force option to ignore this stringnumeric mismatch. This paper introduces a stata command that facilitates access to wfs data, with a userfriendly syntax that allows one to view the documentation, extract a set of variables from a survey, reshape the union or birth histories from wide to long format or vice versa, and make local copies of the data and dictionary files, although users also have. I want to make an integer variable out of it such that it has a new ascending value for each new unit. The text weight calories indicates the variables to be converted, and iid tells stata that id is the identifier you can have more than one. The easiest way to convert string variables to numeric form is to use the encode command. Sep, 2016 for the love of physics walter lewin may 16, 2011 duration.
If the variable is actually a numeric value that just happens to be stored as a string, see our faq. In each case we assume youre starting with a csv file called dat. If instead you want to import spss data to stata, then you need the usespss program. How to convert data types in oracle sql database star. In a recent problem for me, that isolated one fixable string in one of about 600,000 observations, for which looking through the dataset was unattractive. In this post, i would like to show how to convert a numeric date to stata date. Destring wouldnt work with stata as it said that the variable contained non numeric values which it didnt but i managed to destring the variable. From string to stata format this blog post discusses the conversion of text into stata date. How to convert string to float in java and viceversa. But stata records missing values as a single period. The default download settings indicate missing values with two periods, like so. Usually, when we import data manually into the stata editor, the dates.
So, there are a few ways to convert between data types. In this case, you want to convert the actual variable, not the format type see here. In stata this is often true because stata treats stringencoded variables as missing and will not use them in analyses. In this post, i will provide a brief tour of working with dates that will help you get started using all of statas tools.
However, anticipating that this may be problematic, stata offers various commands to change string variables into categorical variables and vice versa. You can perform a similar function using a timestamp. This is intended as a companion to compress, but the emphasis is on the appropriateness of the type rather than the storage space. A very basic question i would appreciate help with. Often the first task is to convert the data youve been given into official stata dates.
Stata requires the variables over which we perform the reshape command to be numbers rather than string. To convert them into a stata date, an example code is shown in the second column. In spss versions 24 and earlier, the default format chosen for a given variable is based on the values present in the first 200 records. Stata can record your work in a log le which contains what you type and what stata produce in response in a smcl le. A string can contain multiple parts of information. Feel free to download the file and try the code below. This data layout is called wide data, but you want your data to be long. You can now use stata s string variables to hold exceedingly long strings, even the contents of files or even binary files. Normally, id fire up a text editor and deconstruct the file, except stata saves its data in a proprietary binary format, meaning it garbles some of the content of the file. X3 reshaping data often particularly with panel data it is. You can have dates in years, months, or even milliseconds. Package to read and write all stata file formats version 15 and older into a r.
The stata command destring and encode could be used to convert string variables to numeric variables. If youve been given a date in string form, such as november 3, 2010, 12010 or 20101103 08. There are no observations because regress, along with most of statas analytic commands, cannot deal with string. How to extract few letters of a string variable in stata. Once you have read this post, then you can read another post that lists a quick table of dates conversions from one frequency to another. Convert string to long int parses str interpreting its content as an integral number of the specified base, which is returned as a value of type long int. How can i quickly convert many string variables to numeric. We want to preserve the original gvkey, so we tell stata to create a separate variable that contains the exact same values of gvkey for every single case in our dataset, just with a different variable type. A nice feature of the manager, however, is that it generates the stata commands needed to accomplish the changes, so it can be used as a learning tool and, as long as you are logging the session, leaves a record behind. Stata has a wide array of tools to work with dates. And, like the pythagorean theorem proofs, there are the very long ones, the shorter ones, and the one that is the most elegant of all. Stata module to recast variables from float to long storage type, statistical software components s444903, boston college department of economics, revised 21 oct 2004.
It provides a wide range of statistical analysis, data management, and graphics. On the lower left side in the variables window you will see the selected variables red arrow. The number of elements in each list must be the same. Stata can store numbers with differing levels of precision, as described in the table below. Converting string variable to double or viceversa statalist.
I have a csv file with a field called activity that is stored as long in stata. How can i convert string variables to numeric variables in. This is why im requesting help to convert string to long instead of int this is a limit of atmega based core on the arduino uno and other atmega based boards an. In the above code, long tells stata that you want to restructure data from wide format to long format. Wherever possible, this changes float variables to long by issuing recast long. Reshaping data from wide to long posted on sunday, july 21st, 20 at 4. Stata is the only statistical package with integrated versioning. Home online help statistical packages stata reshape world development indicators for stata analysis. The using variable would then be treated as if it contained. Extracting and reshaping world fertility survey data in stata.
Description of basic syntax wide and long data forms. Quick table for converting different dates to stata format. Dear all, when i am using the command tostring to convert numerical variable to string variable i am getting an error. In spss version 25, the default format chosen is based on 95% of the cases. If idx is not a null pointer, the function also sets the value of idx to the position of the first character in str after the number. It also performs date adjustments and reformatting during data transfer. The world development indicators is a commonly used dataset for macro level data. May 05, 2015 this will convert the string value to a date. String values containing blanks should be delimited by doube quotation marks. How can i turn a string variable containing dates into a date.
Say that we have date variable in the following format and we want to convert it to stata format. For the love of physics walter lewin may 16, 2011 duration. All these columns will import as string values when they should be numeric. Converting country codes in stata and r one of the most frequent hassles, when building up a new dataset and cleaning up the data prior to an analysis, is that different sources use different codes and notations for country names. If you are new to stata we strongly recommend reading all the articles in the stata basics section. Converting numeric into string using the value labels.
Windows users should not attempt to download these files with a web browser. How do we convert these variables to numeric as destring returns an error. I recently found myself in the unpleasant situation of needing to read a stata. The first case most often occurs when importing data from another source. This article is part of the stata for students series. Not least, most statistical procedures just do not accept string variables. Preserving numerical format after string transformation. To convert numeric variables with a string numbers in red format into. When stata does this, the number will look right when you browse, but attempts to run commands will turn up zero observations. Often data is imported into stata with string format dates such as 10091986 or 9oct1986. In case you are using the map with out generic, then you need to convert the value into string and then try to convert to long. What command can i use to select variables containing specific pattern in stata. More specific, how to convert firmlevel data from the world bank enterprise survey.
If you have more than 67,784 unique values of the string variables that you are encoding, encode will complain. If the first argument is a string, then all the remaining arguments must be string also. Jun 03, 2011 i recently found myself in the unpleasant situation of needing to read a stata. We have doctor notes stored in 500 other files with names like, and so on. Therefore, stata offers tools to turn these date strings into values that, while still displaying sensical data to humans, are encoded in a numeric format that stata likes. A pdf printer is a virtual printer which you can use like any other printer. 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. Files of the type dta or files with the file extension. Converting string date variables to numeric statalist. If a type is specified, the result returned by exp must be string or numeric according to whether type is string or numeric. Destring command suppose we want to convert the variable gvkey a string variable into a numerical variable. You can now use statas string variables to hold exceedingly long strings, even the contents of files or even binary files. If you have a string variable and want to convert it to a numeric variable. Cross sectional units in my panel data set are currently identified by names string variables.
The command log using lename speci es that from then on what you type and what stata produces in response is stored in a log le. While useful for a human eye, a computer cant glean much from data in this format. Fortunately, stata offers some easy ways for converting string to numeric variables and vice versa. The type of the string variable is determined automatically. Wordstat for stata content analysis and text mining tool. Reed college stata help changing string variables to.