How to Convert Numerical Date variable (Type Long and Format %12g) to Stata Date Variable

[Haoyang Xiong]

Hello,

I was trying to convert a numerical date variable with a type of long and format of %12g into a stata date variable. For example, my date variable is something like 20200101 and I want it to be in Stata date variable. Thank you.

Best,
H

[Rich Goldstein]

one easy way is to first make your variable into a string:

tostring dt, gen(dt3)

then you can use the daily function (but get the month and day correct as they are ambiguous in your example):

gen date=daily(dt3,"YMD")
format date %td

you can choose another format if you want; see

h datetime

[Haoyang Xiong]

Thank you Rich Rich Goldstein. That worked!