topic datetime conversion in SAS Programming

datetime conversion

y_fu — Fri, 10 Aug 2018 20:52:14 GMT

After I import the file, there is a column:

Start date

28MAR18:13:00:53
28MAR18:13:01:30
02APR18:14:23:14
02APR18:14:23:14

...

I want to calculate a new column to convert the column above to seconds, how can I do that?

novinosrin — Fri, 10 Aug 2018 21:01:30 GMT

Is your datetime variable a numeric one just formatted with datetime format or is it a char?

If it is formatted, remove the format , you will see the number of seconds since January 1, 1960.

Or if you are looking to extract seconds from the datetime value, use second function

s=second(datetime);

y_fu — Fri, 10 Aug 2018 21:02:22 GMT

It is not numeric, it is char. This is the reason I cannot convert them into seconds.

novinosrin — Fri, 10 Aug 2018 21:04:32 GMT

Aah ok,

newvar= input(datetime, datetime20.);

will give you numeric datetime value

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 11 Aug 2018 06:06:38 GMT

@y_fu wrote:

It is not numeric, it is char. This is the reason I cannot convert them into seconds.

Still better: use the datetime18. informat when reading the external file..

ballardw — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 19:47:51 GMT

@y_fu wrote:

It is not numeric, it is char. This is the reason I cannot convert them into seconds.

Seconds from when?