Convert string date in MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss format to Stata date %tc (e.g.: 01jul2021 00:00:00)

[Michael Duarte Goncalves]

Hi everyone,

A very quick question about date variables:

I want to transform a string variable written as "MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss"into a %tc format as the one mentionned in the title.
The hours-minutes-seconds are always "00:00:00, 01:00:00, 02:00:00, 03:00:00, etc".

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input str17 Date
"07/01/21 00:00:00"
"07/01/21 01:00:00"
"07/01/21 02:00:00"
"07/01/21 03:00:00"
"07/01/21 04:00:00"
"07/01/21 05:00:00"
"07/01/21 06:00:00"
"..."
end

I tried that but not worked:

gen times = date(Date, "MDYhhmmss")
(4,416 missing values generated)

Could anyone provide me a solution please? Thank you.

Michael

[Nick Cox]

The only twist here is the need to spell out the century. In any case all is documented at help datetime

gen double wanted = clock(Date, "MD20Y hms")
format wanted %tc

[Michael Duarte Goncalves]

Hi Nick Cox:

Thank you for your help.
I will have a look at help datetime.

As usual, the code that you provide reflects what I need.

Lovely afternoon.
Michael