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Re: st: wrong datetime results with clock() -- sometimes


From   Rebecca Pope <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: wrong datetime results with clock() -- sometimes
Date   Fri, 5 Jul 2013 14:36:01 -0500

Austin,
Thanks. That was precisely the problem. I made an assumption about the
variable being automatically generated in double format. It turns out
that StataCorp has not yet implemented mind-reading.

Feeling very foolish now,
Rebecca

On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 2:28 PM, Austin Nichols <[email protected]> wrote:
> Rebecca Pope <[email protected]>:
> Try a double.
>
> clear all
> input str21 timestr
> " 2/8/2011 9:50:51 PM"
> "2/12/2011 4:15:40 PM"
> "2/11/2011 3:26:12 PM"
> "5/15/2011 9:46:41 AM"
> "5/20/2011 8:32:28 PM"
> " 2/7/2011 2:15:40 PM"
> "5/25/2011 7:07:57 PM"
> " 5/9/2011 3:00:42 PM"
> "5/22/2011 3:24:57 PM"
> " 5/9/2011 7:09:46 PM"
> end
> gen dt=clock(timestr,"MDYhms")
> gen double dt2=clock(timestr,"MDYhms")
> format dt dt2 %tc
> li
>
> On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 3:05 PM, Rebecca Pope <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Hello,
>> I am trying to convert a variable with datetime observations currently
>> stored as string to a numeric format. Here is a sample of my data
>> after issuing these command:
>>
>> gen datetime = clock(timestr,"MDYhms")
>> format datetime %tc
>>
>> . list timestr datetime in 1/10, noobs clean
>>                  timestr             datetime
>>      2/8/2011 9:50:51 PM   08feb2011 21:50:37
>>     2/12/2011 4:15:40 PM   12feb2011 16:14:48
>>     2/11/2011 3:26:12 PM   11feb2011 15:27:08
>>     5/15/2011 9:46:41 AM   15may2011 09:46:59
>>     5/20/2011 8:32:28 PM   20may2011 20:31:39
>>      2/7/2011 2:15:40 PM   07feb2011 14:16:37
>>     5/25/2011 7:07:57 PM   25may2011 19:08:51
>>      5/9/2011 3:00:42 PM   09may2011 15:01:44
>>     5/22/2011 3:24:57 PM   22may2011 15:25:01
>>      5/9/2011 7:09:46 PM   09may2011 19:10:46
>>
>> As you can see, the converted values are a few seconds off from the
>> time stored in the string variable.
>>
>> I don't think that this is a Stata problem per se because if I convert
>> a single observation, the correct time is displayed:
>> . di %tc clock("2/8/2011 9:50:51 PM", "MDYhms")
>> 08feb2011 21:50:51
>>
>> That said, I'm not the first person to encounter this
>> (http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2011-10/msg00687.html).
>> However, I don't see that a solution/reason was ever provided.
>>
>> My best guess in the face of this was a hidden character in the
>> variable. I checked for this with the following:
>> replace timestr = subinstr(" "+timestr+" "," ","-",.) in 1/10
>>                    timestr
>>      -2/8/2011-9:50:51-PM-
>>     -2/12/2011-4:15:40-PM-
>>     -2/11/2011-3:26:12-PM-
>>     -5/15/2011-9:46:41-AM-
>>     -5/20/2011-8:32:28-PM-
>>      -2/7/2011-2:15:40-PM-
>>     -5/25/2011-7:07:57-PM-
>>      -5/9/2011-3:00:42-PM-
>>     -5/22/2011-3:24:57-PM-
>>      -5/9/2011-7:09:46-PM-
>>
>> As you can see, the hyphens are right next to the text, so I don't
>> think there is anything lurking at the beginning or end of the text
>> that isn't displaying.
>>
>> Does anyone have other suggestions?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Rebecca
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