*! version 1.0.0
help clocktomin

Syntax

clocktomin var1 var2, diaryid(string) diaryst(n)

Description

clocktomin -- converts the variables containing the start and
end times of the activity, from a string looking like a clock, to
the minute-of-the-day format required by the programs included in the timeuse package.
Running the command will create the variables 'start' and 'end' while preserving the original timing variables: var1 and var2.

An example of time use files that express activity timings in this format is the American Time Use Survey.
In the original variable containing the start time of the activity, 4:30 am is represented as "04:30:00", whereas in the 'start' and 'end' variables, 4:30 am is represented by the number 30 (assuming the diary starts at 4 am).
However, when inspecting the variables in the data editor, they will still display the time as a clock because the program attaches clock-like value labels, but 'start' and 'end' are numerical.
If only the beginning of the episode of activity is provided in the original dataset, use the program clocktomins instead.

ATUS datasets have one peculiarity, the end of the last episode of activity reported is not the same as the time at which the diary started -as most time use surveys- but the actual time at which the activity ended.
In case the user is working with a file from ATUS, the program provides a second end variable, 'end_atus' which captures the true end time for the last episode of activity in each diary.
If the file is not an ATUS file, 'end_atus' will probably take the same value as 'end'.

Arguments

var1: variable containing the start time of the activity as a string that looks like a clock that also shows seconds, eg. "04:00:00".

var2: variable containing the end time of the activity as a string that looks like a clock that also shows seconds, eg. "04:00:00".

diaryid(string): the names of the variable or variables that when considered jointly uniquely identify the diary.

diaryst(n): number that indicates the start time of the diary in a 24 hour system clock, with "0" representing midnight, "4" is 4am, and "18" would be 6pm.

Outcomes

start: start time of the episode expressed as minute of day.
'start' can take values from 0 to 1439. The first episode of the diary should start at minute
0.

end: end time of the episode expressed as minute of day.
'end' can take values from 1 to 1440. The last episode of the diary should end at minute 1440.

Example

The following code loads the dataset "atusdiary.dta" and creates the variables 'start', 'end', and 'end_atus' from the string variables included in the dataset.
"atusdiary.dta" is a small dataset with the exact same format as the American Time Use Survey (although with just a few variables).
The variables 'tustarttim' and 'tustoptime' are the variables containing the start and end time of the episode of activity.
'start', 'end', and 'end_atus' measure the time at which the activity ends expressed as minute-of-the-day.
Describing the package, ssc describe timeuse may be needed before loading the example datasets.

. net get timeuse

. use atusdiary, clear

. clocktomin tustarttim tustoptime, diaryid(tucaseid) diaryst(4)

. order tucaseid tustarttim start tustoptime end

. browse tucaseid tustarttim start tustoptime end

Author:

Juana Lamote de Grignon Pérez, Centre for Time Use Research (UCL), juana.lamote@gmail.com

Thanks for citing this software as follows:

Lamote de Grignon, J. (2024). timeuse: Stata package to facilitate the manipulation of diary-based time-use data. Available from: https://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s459346.html.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Elena Mylona and Margarita Vega Rapún for their feedback during the development of the program.