I think all of the listserver wonders that.
Don
On 2013-04-25, at 2:23 PM, Gwinyai Masukume <parturitions@gmail.com> wrote:
> Many thanks Nick.
> Do you sleep? Just kidding.
> Kind regards,
> Gwinyai
>
> On 4/25/13, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
>> For one overview of this territory see
>>
>> SJ-2-3 pr0006 . . . . . . . . . . . . Speaking Stata: On numbers and
>> strings
>> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N. J.
>> Cox
>> Q3/02 SJ 2(3):314--329 (no
>> commands)
>> explains the use of numeric and string data types in Stata
>> and how to convert from one kind to another
>>
>> See http://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf.html?articlenum=pr0006 for
>> accessible .pdf.
>>
>> It's slightly out-of-date (-tostring- became an official command after
>> that paper) but the main ideas still apply.
>>
>> Nick
>> njcoxstata@gmail.com
>>
>>
>> On 25 April 2013 19:50, Gwinyai Masukume <parturitions@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Thanks Elan.
>>> Kind regards,
>>> Gwinyai
>>>
>>> On 4/25/13, Cohen, Elan <cohened@upmc.edu> wrote:
>>>> -encode- is the wrong command for this job. (Read the help file more
>>>> closely to understand why.)
>>>>
>>>> Try -destring-.
>>>>
>>>> - Elan
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
>>>> [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Gwinyai
>>>> Masukume
>>>> Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 13:18
>>>> To: statalist
>>>> Subject: st: problem converting a string variable to a numeric variable
>>>>
>>>> Dear Stata listers,
>>>>
>>>> I have a variable weight. The original dataset has weight as a string
>>>> variable. Type - str13
>>>> Format - %13s.
>>>>
>>>> encode weight, generate(weightgrams)
>>>>
>>>> The above code apparently creates a numeric variable weightgrams.
>>>> Type - long
>>>> Format - %13.0g
>>>>
>>>> However when dealing with this new variable e.g summ weightgrams, I get
>>>> completely abnormal results which bear no resemblance to the expected
>>>> results for the variable weight.
>>>>
>>>> I suspect there is some kind of error in conversion from a string to
>>>> numeric variable.
>>>>
>>>> I am using version 12.1
>>>>
>>>> Kind regards,
>>>> Gwinyai
>>>> *
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>> *
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>>>> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
>>>>
>>> *
>>> * For searches and help try:
>>> * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
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>>> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
>> *
>> * For searches and help try:
>> * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
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>> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
>>
> *
> * For searches and help try:
> * http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
>
Donald Spady
--
dspady@ualberta.ca
*
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