topic Re: turn character var into date var in SAS Programming

turn character var into date var

tellmeaboutityo — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 15:29:53 GMT

Hi, I have a series of character variables that are actually dates. I would like to get them into date format, but don't know how. 😞

They're currently in the format 10/2/2000. Keeping that format is fine. Knowing how to do it in a data step would be most convenient, but proc is fine too. Thanks for any help!

Re: turn character var into date var

RW9 — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 15:36:32 GMT

As I haven't any test data in the form of a datastep, I am just guessing here:

data want (drop=i);
  set have;
  array cd{3} char_date1 char_date2 char_date3;
  array nd{3} num_date1 num_date2 num_date3;
  do i=1 to 3;
    nd{i}=input(cd{i},ddmmyy10.);
  end;
  format num_date: date9.;
run;

I assumed all your character dates were char_date1, 2 etc. and you wanted num_date1, 2 etc.

in future please post test data in the form of a datastep so we have something to run rather than guessing.

Re: turn character var into date var

tellmeaboutityo — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 15:55:02 GMT

You nailed it! Thanks a bunch!