Fw: Thank you - help with extracting month as a numeric from a string variable

[thara vardhan-2]

----- Forwarded by Thara Vardhan/2003642/Staff/NSWPolice on 19/03/2008
17:13 -----

Thara Vardhan/2003642/Staff/NSWPolice
19/03/2008 17:12

To
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Subject
Thank you - help with extracting month as a numeric from a string variable





Hi Richard

Thanks a lot for helping me with a simpler way of writing syntax to
extract month as a numeric from a string variable. Once again I want to
convey my heartfelt thanks to Jon Peck and Richard Ristow for their prompt
help and guidance.

Every time I have needed some help in either solving a syntax problem or
trying to find the best method of analysing data I have found  the list
members to be extremely helpful, knowledgeable with fantastic expertise in
statistics & syntax programming.

 I must admit that I closely follow most discussions and am also saving a
few imp ones in my personal folder- although I am not able to do it
consistently given the work deadlines and priorities.

For the benefit of all members I am positing the 2 methods that can be
used to solve the problem

The Problem:

 Currently I have a string variable "month" with values as

Month
2007-01
2007-06
2007-12

I need to extract only the month values and compute a new variable as a
numeric
       newmonth
        01
        06
        12

Solution1:

First option under the wizard is

create a tome/date variable from a string variable

* Date and Time Wizard: month1.
COMPUTE month1 = number(Month, JDATE7).
VARIABLE LABEL month1.
VARIABLE LEVEL month1 (SCALE).
FORMATS month1 (JDATE7).
VARIABLE WIDTH month1(7).
EXECUTE.

extract part of adate or time variabe

* Date and Time Wizard: finalmonth.
COMPUTE finalmonth = XDATE.MDAY(month1).
VARIABLE LABEL finalmonth "finalmonth".
VARIABLE LEVEL finalmonth (SCALE).
FORMATS finalmonth (F8.0).
VARIABLE WIDTH finalmonth(8).
EXECUTE.

Solution2:

NUMERIC newmonth2(N2).
compute newmonth2=NUMBER(substr(month,6,8),F2).

regards
Thara Vardhan
Senior Statistician
Planning & Results
Organisation Review and Support
NSW Police
Tel: [phone]
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