topic How to delete observation with invalid date (shown as asterisks)? in SAS Programming

How to delete observation with invalid date (shown as asterisks)?

mssun — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 17:34:32 GMT

Hello,

I have a large dataset with one or few observations that has date shown as asterisks (as in the attached image). I wonder how should I remove them? The date format is YYMMDD8.

I've read this thread, Why are my dates showing up as asterisks?, which recommend transforming date into Excel date format before importing. But my dataset is too large for Excel.

Edit:

Based on suggestions of answerers, I print out the date with BEST32 and it shows following results. Apparently it is way too large for date, so I managed to remove them by setting a threshold. It's not a good idea to "hard code" a range because I have no idea on future ranges, so I'm still open to any other solutions available. Thank you for your help!

Re: How to delete observation with invalid date (shown as asterisks)?

Astounding — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 21:18:07 GMT

Almost certainly .....

The asterisks are showing up because the values for these variables are too large. The values won't fit into the YYMMDD8. format.

Can't tell from this vantage point what is actually in these variables or how it got there. Can only tell that it's bad data.

If you switch the format to something wider, you might be able to get an idea of what is there. You could try a format like date10. or yymmdd11.

But you would only discover what the values actually look like and might not solve the riddle of how the bad data got there.

Re: How to delete observation with invalid date (shown as asterisks)?

ballardw — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 21:25:34 GMT

Can you print those values with a best32. format and show us the result?

Or change the format temporarily in the table and show use what a best32 reveals.

Re: How to delete observation with invalid date (shown as asterisks)?

mssun — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 17:44:55 GMT

Yes, it seems to be the problem. Probably need to specify wider format when importing the data. Thank you for answering!

Re: How to delete observation with invalid date (shown as asterisks)?

mssun — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 17:50:17 GMT

Thank you! I did identify the problem by print BEST32. format. Removed them manually afterwards.