topic Convert String to SAS datetime in New SAS User

Convert String to SAS datetime

kli — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 17:22:15 GMT

Hello:

I have a column of csv data as following:

2020/09/11 02:14:27

2020/09/11 02:15:37

2020/09/11 02:16:08

During import SAS convert the column to Type Char instead of DATETIME.

How can I manually convert this column into SAS DATETIME format.

Thanks in advance,

Re: Convert String to SAS datetime

Cynthia_sas — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 17:32:49 GMT

Hi:

If you use a DATA step program you can control how the variable is read and then deal with the date/time value as you wish. The ANYDTDTM informat allows you to read date/time values as you show in your example.

Hope this helps,

Cynthia

Re: Convert String to SAS datetime

Tom — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 17:34:04 GMT

CSV files are just text files. So there is no need to "import" them. Just write a data step to READ the file instead. Then you have complete control over how each variable is defined.

data want;
  infile cards dsd ;
  input dt :anydtdtm. ;
  format dt datetime19.;
cards;
2020/09/11 02:14:27
2020/09/11 02:15:37
2020/09/11 02:16:08
;

Obs                     dt

 1      11SEP2020:02:14:27
 2      11SEP2020:02:15:37
 3      11SEP2020:02:16:08