converting a string date into numeric date

[Zariab Hossain]

Dear Stata users,

I have a date variable under which the values are in string format, e.g, 1996m1. Is there any way to convert it back to numeric date in year-month format?

Thanks,

Mohammad Zariab Hossain
Uppsala University

[Clyde Schechter]

gen wanted = monthly(string_variable, "YM")
format wanted %tm

[Zariab Hossain]

Thanks a lot Clyde! It worked.