Reordering monthly data

[Ishto Stanfield]

Hello,

I have the below monthly data from a Stata output. As you can see there is an issue with the sequence ( 1, 10 ,11, 12, 2, 3, 4 , 5 , 6 , 7, 8, 9). Can anyone help me order the data in an an ascending order (M1-M12) taking in account the other variables (A, B, C)?

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input str7 month float a byte(b c)
"2000M1"      56 32 29
"2000M10"     23 41 77
"2000M11"      5 74 64
"2000M12"    -23 56 41
"2000M2"   -48.5 65 30
"2000M3"     -74 32 28
"2000M4"   -99.5 39 30
"2000M5"    -125 86  7
"2000M6"  -150.5 32 82
"2000M7"    -176 79 27
"2000M8"      23 23 99
"2000M9"      23 51 55
"2001M1"       6 94 88
"2001M10"      2 54 64
"2001M11"      5 60 66
"2001M12"     56 26 85
"2001M2"    37.9 48 61
"2001M3"    44.4 95 64
"2001M4"    50.9 98 76
"2001M5"    57.4 81 25
"2001M6"    63.9 75 26
"2001M7"    70.4 28 62
"2001M8"    76.9 88 65
"2001M9"       5 16 78
"2002M1"      56 82 51
"2002M10"   37.9 18 12
"2002M11"   44.4 37 94
"2002M12"   50.9 93 34
"2002M2"    62.9 14 15
"2002M3"   70.92 75 31
"2002M4"   78.94 49 41
"2002M5"   86.96 39 71
"2002M6"   94.98 49 76
"2002M7"     103 54 68
"2002M8"  111.02 66 25
"2002M9"  119.04 26 14
"2003M1"  127.06 59 22
"2003M10" 135.08 39 88
"2003M11"  143.1 61 78
"2003M12" 151.12 32 28
"2003M2"  159.14 65 87
"2003M3"  167.16 75 34
"2003M4"  175.18 57 92
"2003M5"   183.2 20 91
"2003M6"      56 49 11
"2003M7"      66 30 98
"2003M8"      12  1 21
"2003M9"      23 92 59
end

Thank you

[Rich Goldstein]

currently your dates are strings which is not useful; you want to convert them to SiF (Stata Internal Format) dates; since these are monthly, see

help datetime##s3

[Nick Cox]

Rich Goldstein is bang on.

gen mdate = monthly(month, "YM")
format mdate %tm 
sort mdate

is the kind of code you need.

[Ishto Stanfield]

Thank you!