The first line of syntax loads the dataset again, so that we are starting with a dataset containing only string variables again. Commands such as renames, renvars and tablist may have to be downloaded. Some of them are missing, some have the value 1 and the rest of them are usually a very big number like 3,834,848. With destring, you need to specify either the, generate option or the, replace option. To create new variables typically from other variables in your data set, plus some arithmetic or logical expressions, or to modify variables that already exist in your data set, stata provides two versions of basically the same procedures. Whether youve loved the book or not, if you give your honest and detailed thoughts then people will find new books that are right for them.
A quick browse at the data indicates the presence of hyphens and that these were used in different ways. When destring was incorporated into stata 7, it was largely rewritten. Now, when we destring, we are replacing the string variable by its numerical. The command to save a dataset on stata is save, followed by the path where you want the dataset to be saved, and the optional command replace. Lets make sure we deleted those stray rows at the bottom that arent really data. The \ all command tells stata to do this to all variables use this command carefully. When i use stata s destring command, values that are negative becomes positive, i.
In some ways, the original destring command violated statas philosophy because it was too easy to change much of your dataset without the safeguard of having to spell out some injunction such as, replace. Dec 23, 2016 14 now do some data curation steps to change prices to numbers destring command and generate a newly formatted date. Set observations, create, replace and order variables 08. Stata deals with missing variables in di erent ways depending on the command. First, we generate a new variable, and usually set it equal to missing. General stata command syntax most stata commands follow the same basic syntax. Commenting and formatting syntax start with comment describing your dofile and use comments throughout. How can i use destring for all my variables in a stata file. Log file log using memory allocation set mem dofiles doedit openingsaving a stata datafile quick way of finding variables subsetting using conditional if stata color coding system. The command outreg2 gives you the type of presentation you see in academic papers. Value labels will be defined for numeric variables. There are five steps to using the replace statement.
The \ all command tells stata to do this to all variables. Computing new variables using generate and replace. The command log using lename speci es that from then on what you type and what stata produces in response is stored in a log le. If you have any variables where 999 is a legitimate value, stata is going to recode it to missing. In addition, his comment point to simpler solution than. Jun 12, 2014 what you have to do to convert it to a numeric format is to use the destring command specifying the options dpcomma, which tells stata comma is the decimal separator, and ignore. It covers the most fundamental topics of stata so that you can use it confidently. Destring retuned to double instead of float thursday, april 16, 2020 data cleaning data management data processing i have destringed some variables and were converted from string to double. Replace the replace command is more versatile than the recode command, but it requires more coding steps. Despite saying that the characters were replaced as byte they remained as str2. The second line of syntax runs the destring command.
Remarks and examples split is used to split a string variable into two or more component parts, for example. Command generate is used if a new variable is to be added to the data set. Descriptive statistics mean, median, variability 30 may 2011 tags. Lets try using the destring command and see how it works. String to numeric conversion problem with destring command. As a point of principle, it was decided to sharpen the distinction between destring and encode, more or less. In r i would use the gsub function to find both the dots and commas and replace them by nothing. Commands want to see numbers, and when they do not, they treat the variable as if it contained numeric missing values.
Stata for econ capstone stata research guides at bates. How can i quickly convert many string variables to numeric variables. If you want to replace the existing variable, the command is simply destring varname this will replace the existing specified variable with the same data but now in a nonstring format. However, in stata 11, first you will have to change your xlsxlsx file into csv format file to open it directly in the. Below is the stata code that can be used to merge the nsaf data files. It is important to notice that outreg2 is not a stata command, it is a userwritten procedure, and you need to install it by typing only the first time ssc install outreg2 follow this example letters in italics you type. Any string in var that does not meet the conditions of rules is set to missing in created numeric variables and copied from var in created string variables. Commonly used commands at the beginning of a do file.
Just hit the space bar in the command window to move the program along if you need to. To find out more about any command like what options it takes type help command pwd print current working directory cd c. If you have missings in either dataset, a change of variable type cant possibly help. Destring retuned to double instead of float bj data tech. Mar 23, 2016 use the destring command to as follows.
Stata workflow for data management, analysis, and visualization. I have tried to convert it string to numeric using destring and it. In some ways, the original destring command violated stata s philosophy because it was too easy to change much of your dataset without the safeguard of having to spell out some injunction such as, replace. Also, i dont quite understand why he recommends using destring first. In some ways, the original destring command violated statas philosophy because it was too easy to change much of your dataset without the safeguard of. Aug 05, 2019 the stata command destring and encode could be used to convert string variables to numeric variables. A second method of achieving the same result is the command destring. Despite this limitation, it is possible to obtain tables. Destring destring applies destring to the new string variables, replacing the variables initially created as strings by numeric variables where possible. It then searches stata s web site and locates several faq. As an example i provide here a zipfile with an example download in excel with the steps on separate sheets and a. This course covers broadly the features of stata and gives you an idea of how to perform simple data processing with the software.
The syntax is just destring variable, replace, where variable should be replaced by the name of the variable or variables to be destringed. Other readers will always be interested in your opinion of the books youve read. How can i use destring for all my variables in a stata. Creating and recoding variables stata learning modules. Hello member of stata list i have a variable which have value like 4w12345678. For instance, if age, test1, and test2 all used 1 for missing data, you. This seminar covers stata commands and methods to prepare data for. Stata has commands for dropping duplicates, but it is also important to understand why there a duplicates, because there might be something else wrong with your data. This technique can get tedious if you have lots of variables with the same missing value code. Hi, im working on a project and was able to destring some of my variables but not one. The findit command first searches stata s official help files and notes that there is an official heckman command and several other related commands this makes findit a powerful tool for figuring out how to do things in stata in general, not just for finding userwritten programs. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext.
World bank data stata research guides at bates college. Stata s tsset command is used to declare data in memory as time series. It is the inverse of the official stata command destring. Data create or change data other variabletransformation commands. Use search command to find the command on the internet and follow the instructions given to download it.
Variables may either be recoded into numeric variables or into string variables. Appending observations the append command is what you use when you have two datasets, structured exactly the same way with the same variables, that you want to stack on top of. In a comment to the previous post destring complication. Reed college stata help changing string variables to. The stata command destring and encode could be used to convert string variables to numeric variables. Using outreg2 to report regression output, descriptive. If the string variable contains anything but numbers, you can add the force option to tell stata to convert it anyway, but observations with any nonnumeric characters will get a missing value. Hi statalist, i am facing a problem with destring a variable.
If you are using an earlier version, you should say what it is. I say usually because there are times when i generate a new variable and. This only works if your original string variable is spelled consistently. You can use tostring and destring to convert from one type to the other. If you prefer to retain the existing variable, you can generate a new variable that is a nonstring version of the existing variable. The mvdecode command will convert all these values to missing. To get help in stata type help followed by topic or command, e. Installing programs from ssc the contributed commands from the boston college statistical software components ssc archive, often called the boston college archive, are provided by repec the commands available are implemented as one or more adofiles, and together with their corresponding help files and any other associated files, they form a package. Stata has a bultin command to quickly fill missing values for any variable, nice. There are no observations because regress, along with most of statas analytic commands, cannot deal with string variables.
With encode, you need to specify the, generate option and give it a new variable name. How can i quickly convert many string variables to numeric. We will download real data in their original formats and we will proceed from there. The replace command is often used with logic statements. Clyde schechter and i wrote up a survey of this territory in stata journal 184. Stata treats a missing value as the largest possible value e. Mar 10, 2015 in a stata training, one of the students wondered why after importing an excel file of financial indicators into stata some were read as strings.
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