topic Re: Date Format Issues in New SAS User

Date Format Issues

marleeakerson — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 15:54:11 GMT

Hello,

I am having some trouble changing my date variable to a usable format. I have been able to change it to the 8 digit, MMDDYYYY format, but once I try to put the parathesis in to make it DD/MM/YYYY the numbers completely change and everything gets messy. I have offered photos for reference.

This is the only code I used for this:

data want;
set have;
format transaction_date MMDDYY10.;
run;

Thank you!

Re: Date Format Issues

Reeza — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 16:03:12 GMT

Your first variable is a number, but not a SAS date. You first need to convert it to a SAS date and then apply the format.

transaction_date_sas = input(put(transaction_date, mmddyy10.), mmddyy10.);
format transaction_date ddmmyy10.;

Re: Date Format Issues

Tom — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 16:19:47 GMT

Looks like it is doing what you asked. Consider this little program.

data test;
   input x;
   year=year(x);
   month=month(x);
   day=day(x);
   put (_all_) (= comma12.);
cards;
01082012
04112007
;

x=1,082,012 year=4,922 month=6 day=14
x=4,112,007 year=13,218 month=4 day=20

So one million days since 1960 is in the middle of the year 4922. 4 million days is after the start of the year 13,218!

First convert the value to an actual date (at least for the numbers that are valid dates). Then you can use the value as a date and attach any date format you want to use when display the values. Personally I avoid MMDDYY or DDMMYY format as whichever one you pick half of your audience will be confused.

fixed=input(put(transaction_date,Z8.),mmddyy8.);
format fixed yymmdd10.;

Re: Date Format Issues

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 17:02:27 GMT

I'd also much rather use either YYMMDDD10. or E8601DA10. as a date format. This is the internationally standardized way to write dates and leaves no ambiguity.