Date to String

[Michael Krei=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=DFig?=]

Hi list,

maybe a dummy's question, but I'm at a loss to find help in the help screens
of SPSS. I created a date from three variables (day, month, year) but I need
that date in string format. I can't reformat it and I'm not able to get the
contents of this date variable into a string variable created before with
"string gedat(a10)".

Can anybody help?

Mike

[Art Kendall]

compute gedate = string(numeric_date,date10).

Art Kendall
Social Research Consultants

Michael Kreißig wrote:

>Hi list,
>
>maybe a dummy's question, but I'm at a loss to find help in the help screens
>of SPSS. I created a date from three variables (day, month, year) but I need
>that date in string format. I can't reformat it and I'm not able to get the
>contents of this date variable into a string variable created before with
>"string gedat(a10)".
>
>Can anybody help?
>
>Mike
>
>
>
>

[Judith Saebel]

Data list fixed/day 1-2 month 4-6 year 8-12.

begin data
30  11  2006
 1  12  2006
 1   1  2007
end data.


string an_day (a2) an_month (a3) an_year (a5).

compute an_day = string (day,F2).
compute an_month = string (month,F3).
compute an_year = string (year,F5).

string gedat(a10).
compute gedat = concat(an_day,an_month,an_year).

list gedat.





-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Michael Kreißig
Sent: Wednesday, 29 November 2006 21:14
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Date to String

Hi list,

maybe a dummy's question, but I'm at a loss to find help in the help screens
of SPSS. I created a date from three variables (day, month, year) but I need
that date in string format. I can't reformat it and I'm not able to get the
contents of this date variable into a string variable created before with
"string gedat(a10)".

Can anybody help?

Mike

[Dennis Deck]

Look at the syntax guide (base.pdf) pages under Universals, COMPUTE, and FORMATS.  Page down to the subsections on date formats and numeric/string transformation.

Assuming you used something like:
  COMPUTE MyDate = DATE.mdy(m,d,y) .
you can use FORMATS to change the display format to various formats without changing underlying date value.  To make MyDate display as mm/dd/yyyy use:
  FORMATS MyDate (ADATE10) .

If really need an actual string value like "mm/dd/yyyy" for some reason then use something like:
STRING StrDate (A10)
COMPUTE StrDate=CONCAT(STRING(m,F2.0),'/',STRING(m,F2.0),'/',STRING(m,F2.0))

It gets more complicated if these are not what you meant.

Dennis Deck, PhD
RMC Research Corporation
[hidden email]

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Kreißig [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 2:44 AM
Subject: Date to String

Hi list,

maybe a dummy's question, but I'm at a loss to find help in the help screens
of SPSS. I created a date from three variables (day, month, year) but I need
that date in string format. I can't reformat it and I'm not able to get the
contents of this date variable into a string variable created before with
"string gedat(a10)".

Can anybody help?

Mike