CODEWITHSUNDEEP
datestata
Markos
Markos

Reputation: 13

What is causing the ' invalid name error in Stata?

I am trying to run the following code to reformat variables n(date1, date2) to dates from strings but am getting an error:

' invalid name r(198);

I am using stata 15.0 (upgrade not possible)

This is the code:

    foreach var of varlist date1 date2 {
       gen double_d'var' = clock('var', "YMD hms")
       format d_'var' %tc
       drop 'var'
       rename d_'var' 'var'
    }

Would be grateful for some help.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 9816

Answers (1)

dimitriy
dimitriy

Reputation: 9460

Remove the underscore after double and use `’ quotes (the grave accent and the standard single quote, or apostrophe):

clear
set obs 1
gen date1 = "2020/12/01 00:00:00"
gen date2 = "2021/12/01 00:00:00"
  
foreach var of varlist date1 date2 {
   gen double d_`var' = clock(`var', "YMD hms")
   format d_`var' %tc
   drop `var'
   rename d_`var' `var'
}

Upvotes: 1

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