Stata Data Formats
In the topic of data formats in Stata, the concept of display formats is of primary interest. Stata uses display formats to extend the type system.
Several commands have internal ideas about data formats.
Contents
Display Formats
Numeric Formats
The default display format for each numeric data type is as follows:
Type |
Format |
double |
%10.0g |
float |
%9.0g |
long |
%12.0g |
int |
%8.0g |
byte |
%8.0g |
The available numeric formats are e, f, and g. The general format (g) indicates that the number of decimal places should be shifted to improve readability. The fixed width format (f) indicates that a fixed number of decimal places should be shown. The scientific format (e) indicates that scientific notation should be used.
Value |
With format %9.4g |
With format %9.4f |
With format %9.2e |
3.14159 |
3.142 |
3.14 |
3.14e+00 |
314.159 |
314.2 |
314.16 |
3.14e+02 |
A c can be appended to any numeric format to indicate that commas should be shown.
Date and Datetime Formats
Dates and datetimes are numeric data with unit-specific display formats. These are:
Format |
Unit |
%tc |
milliseconds ignoring leap seconds |
%tC |
milliseconds with leap seconds |
%td |
days |
%tw |
weeks |
%tm |
months |
%tq |
quarters |
%th |
half-years |
%ty |
years |
These formats can be customized with specific components.
Component |
Specification |
Displays As |
Century |
CC |
01 |
Century |
cc |
1 |
Year |
YY |
01 |
Year |
yy |
1 |
JJJ day within year 001–366 jjj day within year 1–366 Mon month Jan, Feb, . . . , Dec Month month January, February, . . . , December mon month jan, feb, . . . , dec month month january, february, . . . , december NN month 01–12 nn month 1–12 DD day within month 01–31 dd day within month 1–31 DAYNAME day of week Sunday, Monday, . . . (aligned) Dayname day of week Sunday, Monday, . . . (unaligned) Day day of week Sun, Mon, . . . Da day of week Su, Mo, . . . day day of week sun, mon, . . . da day of week su, mo, . . . Datetime display formats — Display formats for dates and times 3 h half 1–2 q quarter 1–4 WW week 01–52 ww week 1–52 HH hour 00–23 Hh hour 00–12 hH hour 0–23 hh hour 0–12 MM minute 00–59 mm minute 0–59 SS second 00–60 (sic, due to leap seconds) ss second 0–60 (sic, due to leap seconds) .s tenths .0–.9 .ss hundredths .00–.99 .sss thousandths .000–.999 am show am or pm am or pm a.m. show a.m. or p.m. a.m. or p.m. AM show AM or PM AM or PM A.M. show A.M. or P.M. A.M. or P.M. . display period . , display comma , : display colon : - display hyphen - display space / display slash / \ display backslash \ !c display character c + separator
Note: + displays nothing; it may be used to separate one code from the next to make the format more readable. + is never necessary. For instance, %tchh:MM+am and %tchh:MMam have the same meaning, as does %tc+hh+:+MM+am.
String Formats
Alignment is controlled by the presence or absence of a negative sign (-) ahead of the width. A string variable formatted as %-18s will be left-justified; with a format of %18s it would have been right-justified.
List
The list command resizes and reformats output to try and maximize accessibility. This involves automated truncation and alignment overriding display formats. For information on formatting the output of lists, see here.