SPSSX Discussion

How to read/convert 6-digit numeric as edate

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John F Hall

How to read/convert 6-digit numeric as edate

Is it possible to convert existing variables? I can’t find anything in the syntax ref manual to help with conversion or starting from scratch with DATA LIST. Can anyone help?

TIA

John F Hall

[hidden email]

www.surveyresearch.weebly.com

Marks, Jim

Re: How to read/convert 6-digit numeric as edate

John:

You will need to parse the numeric data to create a date formatted variable:

*Untested

COMPUTE yourdate = DATE.DMY(

TRUNC(yournbr/1000) ,

TRUNC(yournbr –trunc(yournbr/1000)*1000) ),

TRUNC(yournbr –trunc(yournbr/10)*10) )

Format yourdate (edate10).

EXEC.

Jim Marks

Director of Market Research

x 1616

From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of John F Hall
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 11:18 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: How to read/convert 6-digit numeric as edate

Is it possible to convert existing variables? I can’t find anything in the syntax ref manual to help with conversion or starting from scratch with DATA LIST. Can anyone help?

TIA

John F Hall

[hidden email]

www.surveyresearch.weebly.com

John F Hall

Re: How to read/convert 6-digit numeric as edate

In reply to this post by John F Hall

Eventually managed to sort this myself after checking out Jacqueline Collier’s book, “Using SPSS Syntax: A Beginner’s Guide” (Sage, 2010). She’s red-hot on date and time functions.

Transform > Date and Time Wizard gave me the following syntax:

* Date and Time Wizard: xx.

COMPUTE xx=DATE.DMY(SQDate2D, SQDate2M, SQDate2Y).

VARIABLE LABELS xx "Date completed Quaire 2".

VARIABLE LEVEL xx (SCALE).

FORMATS xx (EDATE8).

VARIABLE WIDTH xx(8).

EXECUTE.

Gives me something to play with and see if it’s true about “Blue Monday”, respondent fatigue and all sorts of other things.

John F Hall

[hidden email]

www.surveyresearch.weebly.com

From: John F Hall [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: 22 September 2011 18:18
To: '[hidden email]'
Subject: How to read/convert 6-digit numeric as edate

Is it possible to convert existing variables? I can’t find anything in the syntax ref manual to help with conversion or starting from scratch with DATA LIST. Can anyone help?

TIA

John F Hall

[hidden email]

www.surveyresearch.weebly.com

David Marso

Re: How to read/convert 6-digit numeric as edate

Administrator

In reply to this post by John F Hall

John,
I am surprised that after your decades of using basic SPSS you are unfamiliar with the DATE aggregation functions (eg DATE.MDY(mm,dd,yy(yy) ).
The EDATE issue would be FORMAT issue.
HTH, David

John F Hall wrote

I have a data set with 6-digit numeric variables (leading blank for single
dates) representing ddmmyy, (not dd/mm/yy) but cannot get them into edate
format. The dates are duplicated as 2-digit variables dd, mm yy. There are
also time variables in 4-digit format hhmm (not hh:mm). Changing the format
from numeric to date doesn't work (year changes from 89 to 82!)

Is it possible to convert existing variables? I can't find anything in the
syntax ref manual to help with conversion or starting from scratch with DATA
LIST. Can anyone help?

TIA

John F Hall

<mailto:[hidden email]> [hidden email]

<http://surveyresearch.weebly.com/> www.surveyresearch.weebly.com

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Rick Oliver-3

Re: How to read/convert 6-digit numeric as edate

In reply to this post by John F Hall

If the dates also exist as three separate variables:

compute datevar=date.dmy(day, month, year)
formats datevar (edate10). /*or whatever date display format you want.

If the times always contain four digits:

compute #hour=substr(timevar, 1, 2).
compute #minute=substr(timevar,3).
compute newtimevar=time.hms(#hour, #minute).
formats newtimevar(time5)

In the help, try searching for "date functions".

From: John F Hall <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Date: 09/22/2011 11:40 AM
Subject: How to read/convert 6-digit numeric as edate
Sent by: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <[hidden email]>

I have a data set with 6-digit numeric variables (leading blank for single dates) representing ddmmyy, (not dd/mm/yy) but cannot get them into edate format. The dates are duplicated as 2-digit variables dd, mm yy. There are also time variables in 4-digit format hhmm (not hh:mm). Changing the format from numeric to date doesn’t work (year changes from 89 to 82!)

Is it possible to convert existing variables? I can’t find anything in the syntax ref manual to help with conversion or starting from scratch with DATA LIST. Can anyone help?

TIA

John F Hall

johnfhall@...
www.surveyresearch.weebly.com

Rick Oliver-3

Re: How to read/convert 6-digit numeric as edate

In reply to this post by John F Hall

Full documentation of date aggregation functions can be found here:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/spssstat/v20r0m0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.spss.statistics.help%2Fsyn_date_and_time_aggregation_functions.htm

From: Rick Oliver/Chicago/IBM
To: John F Hall <[hidden email]>
Cc: [hidden email]
Date: 09/22/2011 12:02 PM
Subject: Re: How to read/convert 6-digit numeric as edate