Converting "YYYY.MM" Formatted Dates to "%tm" Format in Stata

[Bruno Schaden]

Hello,

I have a date variable in the "YYYY.MM" format (e.g., "1990.01" for January 1990). Is there a function that can create a Stata variable in the "%tm" format for me? I've attempted to use the "date()" function, but it doesn't seem to meet my requirements. Thank you!

Here's what I've tried:

```stata
gen ym_date = date(Data, "Y.M")
```

However, it's not producing the desired result.
```

Data
1990.01
1990.02
1990.03
1990.04
1990.05
1990.06
1990.07
1990.08
1990.09
1990.10
1990.11
1990.12
1991.01
1991.02
1991.03
1991.04
1991.05

[Nick Cox]

date() is for creating daily dates, as is documented. See help datetime or more formally help date().

If your Data variable is a numeric variable with fractional parts, this should work

gen wanted = monthly(strofreal(Data, "%7.2f")), "YM")

If it is a string variable, this should work.

gen wanted = monthly(Data, "YM")

followed in either case by

format wanted %tm

where naturally you should choose a variable name other than wanted and a different display format if you want one.

See https://www.statalist.org/forums/help#stata which explains the special importance of using dataex with date-time variables to avoid ambiguity about how they are currently held.