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help for ^tsmktim^                                                 (STB-57: dm81)
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Create a sequential Stata time variable from a starting time
------------------------------------------------------------

	^tsmktim^ newtimevar ^,^ ^s^tart^(^date_literal^)^ [ ^seq^uence^(^varname^)^ ]


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

Creates a Stata time variable, newtimevar, with an appropriate format for
yearly, twice yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly or daily data, and executes
^tsset^ to use that variable as the time specifier.  Note that the data
must be ordered by time before issuing ^tsmktim^.

If ^sequence()^ is not specified, the data are assumed to have no gaps and are
sequential in the periodicity of date_literal.  That is to say, one quarter
after another or one month after another with no gaps.


Options
-------

^start(^date_literal^)^ is required and specifies the starting date for the
    first observation in the dataset.  date_literal takes forms such as
    1964, 1999m1, 1960q1, 12jan1985, etc.  depending on whether the data is
    monthly, quarterly, daily, etc; see ^help tfcn^ for more on how to
    specify dates.

^sequence(^varname^)^ specifies that varname contains an integer variable
    that specifies the sequence of the observations.  This allows gaps to be
    specified for the time variable.  If the values of varname are not
    sequential, the resulting time variable will have gaps.  
    
    Note that the start date specified in ^start()^ is taken to be the date
    of the value of the ^sequence()^ variable in the first observation.  If
    that value is missing, then the date from ^start()^ is associated with a
    value of 1 for the ^sequence()^ variable.


Examples
--------

    Assume the following data

	     x
	    --
	    44
	    21
	    15
	    77
	    .
	    .
	    .

    
    Typing

	^. tsmktim mytime, start(1977q2)^

    will produce

	     x   mytime
	    --   ------
	    44   1977q2
	    21   1977q3
	    15   1977q4
	    77   1978q1
	    .      .
	    .      .
	    .      .

    Similarly, 

	^. tsmktim mytime, start(29dec1948)^

    will produce


	     x      mytime
	    --   ---------
	    44   29dec1948
	    21   30dec1948
	    15   31dec1948
	    77   01jan1949
	    .      .
	    .      .
	    .      .


     With a sequence variable, 

	^. tsmktim mytime, start(29dec1948) sequence(myseq)^

     will produce

	     x   myseq      mytime
	    --   -----   ---------
	    44      10   29dec1948
	    21      12   31dec1948
	    15      13   01jan1949
	    77      23   11jan1949
	    .
	    .


Authors
-------

        Christopher F Baum, Boston College, USA
        baum@@bc.edu

        Vince Wiggins, Stata Corporation
        vwiggins@@stata.com

Also see
--------

 Manual:  ^[U] 15.5.3 Time-series formats^,
	  ^[U] 27.3 Time-series dates^,
	  ^[U] 29.12 Models with time-series data^,
	  ^[R] tsset^
On-line:  help for @tfcn@, @tdates@, @time@; @tsreport@