International format date conversions                          (STB-19: dm17)
-------------------------------------

    ^idatetof^  idatevar      [^if^ exp] [^in^ range]^, g^enerate^(^fvar^)^
    ^ftoidate^  fvar          [^if^ exp] [^in^ range]^, g^enerate^(^idatevar^)^

where:

       fvar       variable containing formatted date (e.g., ^890131^)
       idatevar   string variable containing dd/mm/yy (e.g., ^31/5/90^)


Description
-----------

These commands convert dates to and from numeric dates of the form yymmdd
(fvar) and strings of the form dd/mm/yy (idatevar).  In both commands the
^generate()^ "option" is not optional.

Note that ^idatevar^ is the form used for dates as strings in many parts of
the world outside the United States.  That is, the day of the month ^precedes^
the month. The "i" is meant to signify "international".  The two commands
^idatetof^ and ^ftoidate^ are the more international forms of Stata's original
^datetof^ and ^ftodate^.

As an example consider the date October 31, 1992.  In the United States this
could be written as the string ^datevar^ 10/31/92, but outside the US this
would be a nonsense: there is no 31st month.  The correct string would be the
^idatevar^ 31/10/92.


Examples
--------

        ^. ftoidate numdate, generate(strdate)^
        ^. idatetof strdate, generate(numdate)^


Author
------
        Philip Ryan
        Department of Community Medicine
        The University of Adelaide
        FAX (011)-61-8-223-4075


Also see
--------

    STB:  dm17 (STB-19)
 Manual:  [4] strings, [5d] dates
On-line:  help for ^datetof^, ^ftodate^