UTC date format

[Cyrus Muriithi]

How can i format a date like this "Wed Feb 20 12:29:11 UTC 2013" so that it can be in the correct date format like "YMDhm". The variable is currenntly str28 and format %28s

[Nick Cox]

All documented, under help datetime translation

. di %tc clock("Wed Feb 20 12:29:11 UTC 2013", "# MD hms # Y")
20feb2013 12:29:11


* hence 
gen double whatiwant = clock(whatihave, "# MD hms # Y")

[Cyrus Muriithi]

Thank, its working. I just added

gen double vcs002_n = clock(vcs002, "# MD hms # Y")
format vcs002_n %tc

So that i can format the entire records for that variable

[Nick Cox]

Indeed; that way round you do need to specify a format.

Here's another way to do it:

. clear

. set obs 1
number of observations (_N) was 0, now 1

. gen mystr = "Wed Feb 20 12:29:11 UTC 2013"

. ssc inst numdate 

. help numdate 

. numdate clock mytime = mystr, pattern("# M D hms # Y")

. l

     +---------------------------------------------------+
     |                        mystr               mytime |
     |---------------------------------------------------|
  1. | Wed Feb 20 12:29:11 UTC 2013   20feb2013 12:29:11 |
     +---------------------------------------------------+

See also http://www.statalist.org/forums/foru...date-variables

[Cyrus Muriithi]

Thank you, so much.