convert string to date: some observations are missing values

[Olena Onishchenko]

Dear Stata Users

I am converting string to date variable running the following code:

gen date2 = date(date, "MDY")
format date2 %td

----------------------- copy starting from the next line -----------------------

* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input str10 date float date2
"01/12/2011" 18962
"01/12/2011" 18962
"01/12/2011" 18962
"01/12/2011" 18962
"01/12/2011" 18962
"01/12/2011" 18962
"01/12/2011" 18962
"01/12/2011" 18962
"01/12/2011" 18962
"01/12/2011" 18962
"01/13/2011"     .
"01/13/2011"     .
"01/13/2011"     .
"01/13/2011"     .
"01/13/2011"     .
"01/13/2011"     .
"01/13/2011"     .
"01/13/2011"     .
end

------------------ copy up to and including the previous line ------------------

Stata, however, converts some to dates but generates missing value for the others.

Any idea of how to fix it?

Thanks.

[Andrew Musau]

I cannot replicate your issue. Perhaps you specified "DMY" instead of "MDY".

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input str10 date
"01/12/2011"
"01/12/2011"
"01/12/2011"
"01/12/2011"
"01/12/2011"
"01/12/2011"
"01/12/2011"
"01/12/2011"
"01/12/2011"
"01/12/2011"
"01/13/2011"
"01/13/2011"
"01/13/2011"
"01/13/2011"
"01/13/2011"
"01/13/2011"
"01/13/2011"
"01/13/2011"
end

gen date2 = date(date, "MDY")
format date2 %td

Res.:

. l, sep(0)

     +------------------------+
     |       date       date2 |
     |------------------------|
  1. | 01/12/2011   12jan2011 |
  2. | 01/12/2011   12jan2011 |
  3. | 01/12/2011   12jan2011 |
  4. | 01/12/2011   12jan2011 |
  5. | 01/12/2011   12jan2011 |
  6. | 01/12/2011   12jan2011 |
  7. | 01/12/2011   12jan2011 |
  8. | 01/12/2011   12jan2011 |
  9. | 01/12/2011   12jan2011 |
 10. | 01/12/2011   12jan2011 |
 11. | 01/13/2011   13jan2011 |
 12. | 01/13/2011   13jan2011 |
 13. | 01/13/2011   13jan2011 |
 14. | 01/13/2011   13jan2011 |
 15. | 01/13/2011   13jan2011 |
 16. | 01/13/2011   13jan2011 |
 17. | 01/13/2011   13jan2011 |
 18. | 01/13/2011   13jan2011 |
     +------------------------+

[Sergiy Radyakin]

I cannot replicate your issue. Perhaps you specified "DMY" instead of "MDY".

Most certainly so, as we can confirm this from the observations where the calculation has succeeded:

. di date("01/12/2011","MDY")
18639

. di date("01/12/2011","DMY")
18962