Re: st: database manipulation

["Dimitriy V. Masterov" <dvmaster@gmail.com>]

> 1. Is there a way to convert the following date format (1/1/1975) into
> a date form that stata will recognize?

Try this (assuming your original variable is named date)

gen date2=date(date,"MDY")
format date2 %td


> 2.  Is it possible to separate a single string field separated by
> commas into 2 separate fields (i.e. Dallas, TX into Dallas in one
> field and TX in another)?  What about if a space was between the two
> fields (i.e. Dallas TX into two fields - one with Dallas and the other
> with TX)?

There are 2 ways of getting the state (assuming your city-state
variable is named cs). The second is probably safer since regular
expressions can go wrong.

gen state = regexs(0) if regexm(cs,"[A-Z][A-Z]$") // grab 2
CAPITALIZED letters at the end
gen state2 = substr(cs,-2,.) // grab the last two letters at the end

This is how you get the city.

gen city  = regexs(1) if regexm(cs,"(^.*) ([, A-Z][A-Z]$)")
replace city  = regexr(city,",$","")  // gets rid of any commas on the end

HTH,
DVM

> Thank you in advance.
>
> Mike
> *
> *   For searches and help try:
> *   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
> *   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> *   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
>

*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/