RE: st: Fwd: changing the format of the current date

["Radwin, David" <dradwin@rti.org>]

Melanie,

You need a colon in the first line instead of an equals sign and -trim-
in the second line to get rid of an unwanted leading space. Try this:


. local date: display %td_CCYY_NN_DD date(c(current_date), "DMY")

. local date_string = subinstr(trim("`date'"), " " , "-", .)

. save "`date_string'_example", replace


David
--
David Radwin
Senior Research Associate
Education Studies Division
RTI International
2150 Shattuck Ave., Suite 800
Berkeley, CA 94704
Phone: 510-665-8274

www.rti.org

*Please note new contact information*


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-
> statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Melanie Leis
> Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 2:34 PM
> To: statalist
> Subject: Re: st: Fwd: changing the format of the current date
> 
> Thanks Bill and Nick, this is very helpful.
> 
> Nevertheless, the reason I'd like to change the format on
> c(current_date) is to incorporate it into the name of a file.  What
> I've been doing is:
> 
>      local c_date= c(current_date)
>      local date_string = subinstr("`c_date'", " " , "-", .)
>      save "`date_string'_example", replace
> 
> Which yields a file name 22-May-2013_example
> 
> I'd like a file name that is more like 2013_05_22_example
> 
> Incorporating your suggestion I get:
> 
>      local date= %td_CCYY_NN_DD date(c(current_date), "DMY")
>      local date_string = subinstr("`date'", " " , "-", .)
>      save "`date_string'_example", replace
> 
> But after the first local macro I get an error that says
> 
>      %td_CCYY_NN_DD invalid name
> 
> Any suggestions on how I could fix this?
> 
> Thank you so much!
> 
> Melanie
> 
> On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 1:10 PM, William Gould, StataCorp LP
> <wgould@stata.com> wrote:
> > Melanie Leis <melanieleis@gmail.com> wrote,
> >
> >> Is there a way to change the format of the automated date in
> >> c(current_date)?
> >>
> >> The automatic format is 22 May 2013
> >>
> >> I would like to get something that looks like 2013 05 22
> >
> >
> > There's already been one good answer.  Here's another,
> >
> >         . display %td_CCYY_NN_DD date(c(current_date), "DMY")
> >         2013 05 22
> >
> >
> > -- Bill
> > wgould@stata.com


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