topic Specific filter over tables in New SAS User

Specific filter over tables

aloou — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 14:52:56 GMT

Hello everyone,

is it possible to select from a table where variable type is date.

Exemple: table x contains several columns, some of them are date type

what i want is to select from x where the type is date.

knowing that i Don't know the variables names.

thank you so much

Re: Specific filter over tables

ballardw — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 15:13:50 GMT

SAS data sets have two variable types: numeric and character.

If a variable is numeric and has been assigned a date type format you might be able to find them. Or your variables have been assigned a label with the word Date as part of the label.

If you don't have either of those then unlikely and either of those would require searching the data set variable attributes, likely creating a macro variable and then using the macro variable in Keep data set option.

It may be easier to just run proc contents or examine table properties directly in the SAS Explorer to find these.

Unfortunately when "dates" are buried in character values or simple numeric values like 19960422 without a format they are unlikely to be found.

Re: Specific filter over tables

PeterClemmensen — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 15:13:52 GMT

So you want to select all the variables that are formated as dates, correct?

Re: Specific filter over tables

Reeza — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 15:54:14 GMT

Use the FMTINFO function to figure out if the format is a date/datetime category, unfortunately it filters both dates and datetimes.

https://documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=lefunctionsref&docsetTarget=n08tazkeygnw9on138axalvpy9p4.htm&docsetVersion=9.4&locale=en