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