panel data and time variable format

[Olga Ivanova]

Hello,

I have a dataset and i need to define quarterly time variable and declare data to be a panel data. "datadate" variable - contains the calendar date of the fiscal year end of a firm. So what i did is generated a quarter variable and then declare data to be a panel data. I am not sure if my code is correct.

g quarter = qofd(datadate)
format quarter %tq
xtset permno quarter

But is it possible to use a shorter code? Will this code have the same result?

g quarter = qofd(datadate)
xtset permno quarter, format(%tq)

THank you in advance

[Clyde Schechter]

Both of the approaches you show look correct and they will produce the same results.