Question

I’m completely new to stata. I’m trying to merge 3 different datasets which have dates in them with format (d-mmm-yy). While trying to merge i’m encountering with an error saying

date is str 9 in using data stata
r(106)

I have no clue what this error is about. Need some help. I can provide any additional info if required.

Thanks

Answer 1

This probably means that in some data sets, the date is stored as a number (Stata’s format is Unix-like, # of elapsed days since 1 Jan 1960), while in others, it is a string (which is exactly what Stata tells you). You need to convert them all to the same format, e.g. with

generate long n_date = date(date, "DMY", 2050)

See help date() or help date functions.