Convert a date variable with a character

[John MacDonald]

I have data stored like this:
01-JAN-2020 02:20
I'd like to convert it to clock
gen eventdate = clock(datetime_str_numeric, "DMYhms")

Is there any easy way to do this or do I have to use a substring command?

[Ken Chui]

clear
input str20 y
"01-JAN-2020 02:20"
end
gen double eventdate = clock(y, "DM20Yhm")
format eventdate %tcDD-NN-CCYY_HH:MM

[John MacDonald]

Here is what I did that works but is inefficient:

gen datetime_str_numeric = subinstr(incidentdatetime, "JAN", "01", 1)
replace datetime_str_numeric = subinstr(datetime_str_numeric, "FEB", "02", 1)
replace datetime_str_numeric = subinstr(datetime_str_numeric, "MAR", "03", 1)
replace datetime_str_numeric = subinstr(datetime_str_numeric, "APR", "04", 1)
replace datetime_str_numeric = subinstr(datetime_str_numeric, "MAY", "05", 1)
replace datetime_str_numeric = subinstr(datetime_str_numeric, "JUN", "06", 1)
replace datetime_str_numeric = subinstr(datetime_str_numeric, "JUL", "07", 1)
replace datetime_str_numeric = subinstr(datetime_str_numeric, "AUG", "08", 1)
replace datetime_str_numeric = subinstr(datetime_str_numeric, "SEP", "09", 1)
replace datetime_str_numeric = subinstr(datetime_str_numeric, "OCT", "10", 1)
replace datetime_str_numeric = subinstr(datetime_str_numeric, "NOV", "11", 1)
replace datetime_str_numeric = subinstr(datetime_str_numeric, "DEC", "12", 1)

[Nick Cox]

The conversions in #3 are all unnecessary. @Ken Chui's solution shows that clock() is fine with months in the form JAN.

There were two problems with the code in #1. clock() was expecting seconds as well and didn't find them. The variable type must be double. This is emphasised repeatedly in help datetime.