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help for ^tsmktim^                        (STB-57, dm81; revised for SSC distribution)
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Create a sequential Stata time variable from a starting time
------------------------------------------------------------

	^tsmktim^ newtimevar , ^s^tart(date_literal) [ ^seq^uence(varname) ^i^(varname)]


Description
-----------

Creates a Stata time variable, newtimevar, with an appropriate format for
yearly, twice yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly or daily data, and executes
^tsset^ to use that variable as the time specifier.  Note that the data
must be ordered by time before issuing ^tsmktim^.

If ^sequence()^ is not specified, the data are assumed to have no gaps and are
sequential in the periodicity of ^date_literal^.  That is to say, one quarter
after another or one month after another with no gaps.

If ^i()^ is specified, the data are assumed to be a panel with that variable as
the panel indicator (^iis^). The first observation of each panel unit is assumed
to be dated ^start^ unless a ^sequence^ variable is specified.


Options
-------

^start^(^date_literal^) is required and specifies the starting date for the
    first observation in the dataset.  ^date_literal^ takes forms such as
    1964, 1999m1, 1960q1, 12jan1985, etc.  depending on whether the data is
    monthly, quarterly, daily, etc; see ^help tfcn^ for more on how to
    specify dates.

^sequence(^varname^)^ specifies that ^varname^ contains an integer variable
    that specifies the sequence of the observations.  This allows gaps to be
    specified for the time variable.  If the values of ^varname^ are not
    sequential, the resulting time variable will have gaps.  
    
    Note that the start date specified in ^start()^ is taken to be the date
    of the value of the ^sequence()^ variable in the first observation.  If
    that value is missing, then the date from ^start()^ is associated with a
    value of 1 for the ^sequence()^ variable.
    
^i(^varname^)^ specifies that ^varname^ contains a variable indicating units of
    a panel. ^varname^ must be a valid argument for, e.g., ^iis^. ^tsmktim^ will
    then create the time variable and ^tsset^ by both the panel variable and time
    variable.



Examples
--------

    Assume the following data

	     x
	    --
	    44
	    21
	    15
	    77
	    .
	    .
	    .

    
    Typing

	^. tsmktim mytime, start(1977q2)^

    will produce

	     x   mytime
	    --   ------
	    44   1977q2
	    21   1977q3
	    15   1977q4
	    77   1978q1
	    .      .
	    .      .
	    .      .

    Similarly, 

	^. tsmktim mytime, start(29dec1948)^

    will produce


	     x      mytime
	    --   ---------
	    44   29dec1948
	    21   30dec1948
	    15   31dec1948
	    77   01jan1949
	    .      .
	    .      .
	    .      .


     With a sequence variable, 

	^. tsmktim mytime, start(29dec1948) sequence(myseq)^

     will produce

	     x   myseq      mytime
	    --   -----   ---------
	    44      10   29dec1948
	    21      12   31dec1948
	    15      13   01jan1949
	    77      23   11jan1949
	    .
	    .


Authors
-------

        Christopher F Baum, Boston College, USA
        baum@@bc.edu

        Vince Wiggins, Stata Corporation
        vwiggins@@stata.com

Also see
--------

 Manual:  ^[U] 15.5.3 Time-series formats^,
	  ^[U] 27.3 Time-series dates^,
	  ^[U] 29.12 Models with time-series data^,
	  ^[R] tsset^
On-line:  help for @tfcn@, @tdates@, @time@; @tsreport@