converting string variable (time) into numeric variable

[ian]

I am trying to convert the time at which participants completed the
study (a string variable called "time") into a numeric variable so I
can control for it in a regression analysis. I have tried the compute
and recode commands, but when I do the following error message appears
for every piece of data SPSS tries to convert (in the example below
SPSS is trying to convert 11:00 into a numeric variable):

>Warning # 1102
>An invalid numeric field has been found. The result has been set to the
>system-missing value.
>Command line: 80 Current case: 1 Current splitfile group: 1
>Field contents: '11:00'

The variable is created, but the cells are blank. Could someone help
me with this please? : )

-Ian Zimmerman

[JKPeck]

Try using the Date and Time wizard on the Transform menu to generate
the correct conversion code.

HTH,
Jon Peck

[E van Haarst]

> Jon Peck- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

In my experience importing goes wrong sometimes.
You might try to change the date-time format by using the following
syntax:
FORMATS time (DATETIME17.0) , results in dd-mmm-yyyy hh:mm (17 refers
to the number of text or numbers)
FORMATS time (DATETIME11.0) .
search the syntax help file for datetime to see all options.

To make it numeric you can use FORMATS time (F 2.0) , meaning 2
numbers, 0 digits.

good luck