converting dates (year and month)

[River Huang]

Dear All, Is there a more concise way to go from date to newdate below? Thanks.

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input str6 date float newdate
"202101" 732
"202102" 733
end
format %tm newdate

[River Huang]

I found that we can ssc install numdate (by Nick Cox), and

numdate monthly d = date, pattern(YM)

[Nick Cox]

This problem is often discussed here and is the focus of a dedicated Tip in the Stata Journal visible at https://www.stata-journal.com/articl...article=dm0096

In essence, monthly() is not quite smart enough. Here are two work-arounds.

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input str6 date float newdate
"202101" 732
"202102" 733
end
format %tm newdate

gen wanted1 = monthly(substr(date, 1, 4) + " " + substr(date, 5, 2), "YM")

gen wanted2 = ym(floor(real(date)/100), mod(real(date), 100))

format wanted? %tm

[River Huang]

Dear Nick, Thanks for these suggestions. I will go with the second method.