What is Destring in Stata?

destring converts variables in varlist from string to numeric. If varlist is not specified, destring will attempt to convert all variables in the dataset from string to numeric. destring treats both empty strings “ ” and “.” as indicating sysmiss (.) and interprets the strings “.

Can you convert a string to a variable?

One method of converting numbers stored as strings into numerical variables is to use a string function called real that translates numeric values stored as strings into numeric values Stata can recognize as such.

Why is my data red in Stata?

It’s a common mistake when importing data to accidentally make Stata think a numeric variable is a string. The values of string variables are red in the data browser (like make in this data set) so if you start seeing red where you shouldn’t you know you’ve got a problem.

Can we code numeric variables into string variables and vice versa?

SPSS Tutorials: Recoding String Variables (Automatic Recode) In SPSS, recoding categorical string variables to numeric codes and converting blank strings to missing values can be done automatically using Automatic Recode.

What is Subinstr Stata?

Description. subinstr(s, old, new) returns s with all occurrences of old changed to new. subinstr(s, old, new, cnt) returns s with the first cnt occurrences of old changed to new. All occurrences are changed if cnt contains missing.

What is type mismatch error in Stata?

The error is “type mismatch”. That means that Stata expects numeric but sees string, or vice versa. In this case Stata expects string. So, the details of what’s inside the date are as yet quite secondary.

What is %s and %D in Python?

The %d and %s string formatting “commands” are used to format strings. The %d is for numbers, and %s is for strings. They are used when you want to include the value of your Python expressions into strings, with a specific format enforced.

What is the difference between numeric and string variables?

Numeric variables contain only numbers and are suitable for numeric calculations such as addition and multiplication. String variables may contain letters, numbers and other characters. You can’t do calculations on string variables -even if they contain only numbers.

What is a numeric variable in Stata?

With numeric variables, you can perform any computations, meaningful or not. For instance, Stata will compute the mean of the variable representing the country respondents come from, should you so desire.

Is age a string variable?

Variables come in two basic types, viz: numeric and string. Variables such as age, height and satisfaction are numeric, whereas name is a string variable. String variables are best reserved for commentary data to assist the human observer. However they can also be used for nominal or categorical data.

What is encode in Stata?

Description. encode creates a new variable named newvar based on the string variable varname, creating, adding to, or just using (as necessary) the value label newvar or, if specified, name.

What does mismatch mean in Stata?

A type mismatch means that you trying to do something numeric to strings, or vice versa. In your examples, possibly year is a string variable somehow. If so, destring year, replace. On debugging: Stata will stop with an error message as soon as it hits a problem.

How can I convert string variables to numeric variables in Stata?

Stata FAQ: How can I convert string variables to numeric variables in Stata? The easiest way to convert string variables to numeric form is to use the encode command. If the variable is actually a numeric value that just happens to be stored as a string, see our FAQ: How can I quickly convert many string variables to numeric variables?

Can a Stata file be defined as a string?

| Stata FAQ. There may be times that you receive a file that has many (or all) of the variables defined as strings, that is, character variables. The variables may contain numeric values, but if they are defined as type string, there are very few things you can do to analyze the data.

Can a comma be used as a Stata variable?

Note that to Stata the comma is a nonnumeric character; see also the dpcomma option below. force specifies that any string values containing nonnumeric characters, in addition to any specified with ignore(), be treated as indicating missing numeric values. float specifies that any new numeric variables be created initially as type float.

How is the sex variable encode in Stata?

Because female has six characters, the variable is stored as a str6. We can encode the sex variable and use compress to store the variable as a byte, which takes only 1 byte. Because our dataset contains 1,130 people, the string variable takes 6,780 bytes, but the encoded variable will take only 1,130 bytes.