Date is being displayed in SIF despite applying %td format

[Kosmas Yeo]

I have a variable test:

              storage   display    value
variable name   type    format     label      variable label
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
test            double  %tc                


. tab test

  Date/time |
  submitted |      Freq.     Percent        Cum.
------------+-----------------------------------
  30jul20.. |          1        .6       
  30jul20.. |          1        0.44

I want to convert it only to a date format (no time). I tried -format test %td- as the datetime helpfile seems to suggest, but then it gets converted to SIF despite having a %td format:

. format test %td

. desc test

              storage   display    value
variable name   type    format     label      variable label
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
test            double  %td                

. tab test

  Date/time |
  submitted |      Freq.     Percent        Cum.
------------+-----------------------------------
   1.85e+12 |          1        0.6       
   1.85e+12 |          1        0.44

What am I doing wrong? Thanks

[Carole J. Wilson]

See SIF to SIF conversion section of the help file (help datetime).

[Clyde Schechter]

I tried -format test %td- as the datetime helpfile seems to suggest

It cannot be over-emphasized, nor too often repeated, that changing the display format of a datetime variable (as you did) does not change it from clock to daily, or daily to monthly, etc. That requires a conversion function, such as -dofc()-, and then the application of the appropriate new display format.

More generally, the -format- command never changes the values of a variable, only how they are displayed in some commands. Daily date and clock datetime variables are different animals, and displaying either as the other just gives you gibberish.

[Nick Cox]

https://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf....iclenum=dm0067 sings Clyde's song at greater length.