topic Converting character field to date field in SAS Programming

Converting character field to date field

Recep — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 20:59:18 GMT

Hello there,

I'm having trouble to convert the following character field to date field with the SAS code below:

data temp1;
length id $1. date $10.;
infile DATALINES dsd missover;
input id date $;
CARDS;
1, 7/ 3/2011
2, 3/17/2011
;
run;

data temp2;
set temp1;

new_date=input(date, mmddyy10.); format new_date date9.;

run;

The code works for the second record (3/17/2011) but not for the first one (7/ 3/2011). I think the reason for that is the way the day part of the field was recorded in the second record. As you can notice there is a blank space between "/" and "3".

I was wondering if there is another SAS date format to be able to tackle this issue.

Best,

Recep

PS: I use SAS 9.4 TS Level 1M3 on W32 7Pro platform.

Re: Converting character field to date field

Reeza — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 21:05:34 GMT

Try:

informat date mmddyy10.;

data temp1;
length id $1. date 8.;
informat date mmddyy10.;
infile DATALINES dsd truncover;
input id date ;
CARDS;
1, 7/ 3/2011
2, 3/17/2011
;
run;

Re: Converting character field to date field

Recep — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 21:10:41 GMT

Hi Reza,

Thanks a lot for your response! Unfortunately the code did not work. Plus I was hoping to deal with the problem with a SAS date format as opposed to reading raw data into SAS. The data I have already exist as a SAS file and I would like to manipulate the character date field.

Cheers,

Recep

Re: Converting character field to date field

novinosrin — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 21:12:48 GMT

Hi @Recep I have had that issue before. if you know your char date values are inconsistent of that type, use compress



data temp1;
length id $1. date $10.;
infile DATALINES dsd missover;
input id date $;
CARDS;
1, 7/ 3/2011
2, 3/17/2011
;
run;

 

data temp2;
set temp1;
new_date=input(compress(date), mmddyy10.); format new_date date9.;
run;

Re: Converting character field to date field

Reeza — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 21:24:57 GMT

new_var = input(variable, mmddyy10.);

@Recep wrote:

Hi Reza,

Thanks a lot for your response! Unfortunately the code did not work. Plus I was hoping to deal with the problem with a SAS date format as opposed to reading raw data into SAS. The data I have already exist as a SAS file and I would like to manipulate the character date field.

Cheers,

Recep

Re: Converting character field to date field

Recep — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 21:47:46 GMT

Thanks a lot! This is exactly what I needed to...

Recep

Re: Converting character field to date field

Reeza — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 21:48:56 GMT

I think you meant to mark @novinosrin post as correct because mine clearly isn't....:(

Re: Converting character field to date field

Recep — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 21:51:24 GMT

Thanks a lot for letting me know Reeza! Clearly it's getting late here:)