How to destring time

[Chris Miyinzi]

Dear all, I am trying to destring time variable but it's not successful.Please help me


clear
input str6 time_interview_started
"12:50:"
"03:06:"
"12:20:"
"12:21:"
"12:37:"
end

[Nick Cox]

Never try to destring time variables. That's because they do not contain values like 1259 and 1300, because 13:00 - 12:59 is not 41 minutes.

Read

help dates

You need

 
gen double wanted = clock(time_interview_wanted, "hm") 
format wanted %tc_HH:MM

and note that the result is in milliseconds.

[Chris Miyinzi]

Thanks Nick.