Conversion of monthly sting variable into monthly float variable for time series analysis

[Oluwatobi Karimi]

Hello everyone i am really new to stata and i have an econometrics paper due in a couple days and i have to perform some time series analysis on the data i have.
I am using Monthly data from 2007-12-01 to 2019-10-01 in a "YMD" format. I have been trying to declare my dataset as a time series data but i have been unable to do so because my monthly data is currently in a string type. I have used numerous of Date and Time functions to fix this problem such as date(), month(), monthly(), mofd(), but none of them have given me my desired result.
When i used the mofd(date("2009-08-01", "YMD")) and changed the format all my monthly observations appeared as 2009m8 instead of 2007m12 - 2019m10 which is what i want.
Please if anyone is capable or willing to help me i would deeply appreciate it. I have watched countless youtube videos and gone through the help guide but unable to find the correct command function.
Again i need this to be able to declare time series dataset and perform a Dickie Fuller test for stationary in my time series data. So any help is welcomed

[William Lisowski]

Welcome to Statalist.

Perhaps this example will point you in a useful direction.

// here is sample data to demonstrate the code
* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input str10 date_s
"2007-12-01"
"2019-10-01"
end

// here is the code to create numeric Stata Internal Format monthly dates from string Human Readable Format daily dates.
generate date_d = daily(date_s,"YMD")
format %td date_d
generate date_m = mofd(date_d)
format %tm date_m
list, clean noobs

. list, clean noobs

        date_s      date_d    date_m  
    2007-12-01   01dec2007   2007m12  
    2019-10-01   01oct2019   2019m10

[Oluwatobi Karimi]

Thank you so much, i appreciate the help