topic Re: changing character to a number in SAS Programming

changing character to a number

GS2 — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 17:53:44 GMT

Using SAS 9.4

How do I change an imported date that should be in date format to date format? SAS imported it as a character. Thanks

Re: changing character to a number

TomKari — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 17:56:42 GMT

Two options: change the code that imports the date value to use the appropriate informat, or keep importing it as character and use the INPUT function to convert it to a number. If you need more specific information, you'll need to post an example. Tom

Re: changing character to a number

GS2 — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 18:01:09 GMT

proc import

OUT=mylib.a

DATAFILE=

DBMS=xlsx REPLACE;

SHEET= 'sheet3';

GETNAMES=YES;

RUN;

This is my import statement.

the variable is second_tx_start_date, what would an input function look like to convert from character to number?

Re: changing character to a number

TomKari — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 18:25:36 GMT

With some file formats, SAS writes the import code to the log, which you can copy and modify. But not with XLSX.

So your easiest option is to convert your variable in a subsequent data step, something like this:

data work.a_new;
set work.a(rename=(second_tx_start_date = original_second_tx_start_date));
second_tx_start_date = input(original_second_tx_start_date, yymmdd10.);
format second_tx_start_date date.;
drop original_second_tx_start_date;
run;

You'll need to find the specific informat to use for your date format, the SAS help is the easiest place to look.

Tom

Re: changing character to a number

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 18:30:32 GMT

Problem #1: the Excel file format is not usable for a reliable data transfer. See the Gazillion of posts about it here.

Problem #2: proc import makes guesses, so variable types and other attributes change with the current contents of the infile

Save your data to a csv file, import that once with proc import, take the resulting data step from the log and adapt it as needed.

Take control of your process.