topic Re: Compare a Date stored within a Macro variable to a list of Datetime in New SAS User

Compare a Date stored within a Macro variable to a list of Datetime

salvavit — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 13:00:33 GMT

Hi all,

I have a macro variable with the following date: "20200622" (yymmddn8. format). What I need to do is to compare it to a list of Datetime values (e.g. 01JAN2020:01:00:02) in order to exclude those that are less or equal to the date stored within the macro variable.

What am I supposed to do? I am a bit lost. Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

Re: Compare a Date stored within a Macro variable to a list of Datetime

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 13:50:03 GMT

Do not format macro variables, that makes it only harder to use them.

data _null_;
call symputx("cutoff",input("20200622",yymmdd8.));
run;

Then you can compare them to the datepart of a datetime value:

data test;
input dt :datetime19.;
format dt datetime19.;
del = &cutoff. gt datepart(dt);
datalines;
01JAN2020:01:00:02
23jun2020:01:00:02
;

Re: Compare a Date stored within a Macro variable to a list of Datetime

salvavit — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 15:15:24 GMT

Hello Kurt and thanks for the reply.

Actually, I might have solved the issue in the meantime, although using a different solution than yours. This is what I wrote:

data table_2 (drop=day_p);
set table_1;
day_pp = datepart(input(day_p,yymmddn8.));
run;

data table_3 (rename=day_pp = day_p);
set table_2;
where put(day_pp, yymmddn8.) >= "&MACRODATE";
run;

It seems to be working.

Re: Compare a Date stored within a Macro variable to a list of Datetime

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 15:22:43 GMT

This is also valid, because the format in the PUT function tells everybody how the value in the macro variable should be formatted.

Personally, I prefer the "raw" method, as I can directly compare the SAS dates without using a PUT or INPUT function.