topic Re: Data appears as Char rather than numeriv in SAS Programming

Data appears as Char rather than num

desireatem — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 14:54:32 GMT

Hello, I have the date below coming up as "char" , 15, $15, $15 but I want it to be "num", 8, Datetime , anydtdtm40.

Obs	BP_Rd_Time
1
2	2/9/2017 13:44
3
4	2/8/2017 13:20
5
6	2/8/2017 14:45
7
8	2/8/2017 8:00
9	2/16/2017 19:31
10
11
12
13	2/21/2017 2:45
14	2/6/2017 22:15
15

Re: Data appears as Char rather than numeriv

PaigeMiller — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 14:38:42 GMT

If these are truly character and not numeric, you can turn them into numerics via the INPUT function, using one of these informats: ANYDTDTEw. ANYDTDTMw. ANYDTTMEw.

Re: Data appears as Char rather than numeriv

desireatem — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 14:53:46 GMT

I do not understand.

1573 data firstobs;
1574 set firstobs;
1575 BP_Time=input(BP_Rd_Time, ANYDTDTEw.);
----------
48
ERROR 48-59: The informat ANYDTDTEW was not found or could not be loaded.

1576 run;

NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by:
(Line):(Column).
1575:9 1575:15
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
WARNING: The data set WORK.FIRSTOBS may be incomplete. When this step was stopped there were
0 observations and 64 variables.
WARNING: Data set WORK.FIRSTOBS was not replaced because this step was stopped.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

Re: Data appears as Char rather than numeriv

Reeza — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 14:55:44 GMT

See the approach outlined here:

https://communities.sas.com/t5/Base-SAS-Programming/date-manupulation/m-p/383548

It's a variant on the same question where you need to convert a character to a date format.

If you can't get it working, post your code and we're happy to help.

@desireatem wrote:

I do not understand.

1573 data firstobs;
1574 set firstobs;
1575 BP_Time=input(BP_Rd_Time, ANYDTDTEw.);
----------
48
ERROR 48-59: The informat ANYDTDTEW was not found or could not be loaded.

1576 run;

NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by:
(Line):(Column).
1575:9 1575:15
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
WARNING: The data set WORK.FIRSTOBS may be incomplete. When this step was stopped there were
0 observations and 64 variables.
WARNING: Data set WORK.FIRSTOBS was not replaced because this step was stopped.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

Re: Data appears as Char rather than numeriv

Reeza — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 14:58:20 GMT

Don't code like this, having the same name in your DATA and SET statement. Look slightly further down and notice the warning. You've now destroyed your input data set and now need to recreate it.

1573 data firstobs;
1574 set firstobs;

...

WARNING: The data set WORK.FIRSTOBS may be incomplete. When this step was stopped there were
0 observations and 64 variables.

EDIT: w in the informat is for the width, the docs show it as a number. Either remove it or add a number in its place to indicate the width of the informat.

Re: Data appears as Char rather than numeriv

desireatem — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 15:04:46 GMT

Same error message;

1581 data firstobs10;
1582 set firstobs;
1583 BP_Time=input(BP_Rd_Time, ANYDTDTEw.);
----------
48
ERROR 48-59: The informat ANYDTDTEW was not found or could not be loaded.

1584 run;

NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by:
(Line):(Column).
1583:9 1583:15
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
WARNING: The data set WORK.FIRSTOBS10 may be incomplete. When this step was stopped there
were 0 observations and 64 variables.
WARNING: Data set WORK.FIRSTOBS10 was not replaced because this step was stopped.

Re: Data appears as Char rather than numeriv

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 15:07:31 GMT

The lowercase w is just used as a placeholder for the length of the informat.

Re: Data appears as Char rather than numeriv

desireatem — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 15:19:53 GMT

Thanks, this is correct:

data firstobs10;
set firstobs2;
BP_Time=input(BP_Rd_Time, ANYDTDTM40.);
run;