topic proc sql, case statement w/ today() date substitution in SAS Programming

proc sql, case statement w/ today() date substitution

_LB — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:05:24 GMT

Hello all,

I have, what I think is a simple of piece of code that I am asking for a simple date subsititution during a case statement.

In essence, if the main date (DISCHDT) field is blank it goes to another table (DISCHARGE_DATE_ACTUAL) and retrieves from there. If that is blank, then I want today's date-

Code is:

CASE WHEN A.DischDt NE . THEN A.DischDt

WHEN A.DischDt=. THEN DATEPART(DIS.DISCHARGE_DATE_ACTUAL)

ELSE TODAY() end as discharge format MMDDYY10.

The problem is that it will not substitute today's date when both fields are blank. I have tried different variations to no effect.

Any help grateful.

Thanks & have a great labor day.

~LB

proc sql, case statement w/ today() date substitution

Hobbes — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:42:12 GMT

Have you checked the coalesce function. In your case, something like:

coalesce(A.DischDt, DATEPART(DIS.DISCHARGE_DATE_ACTUAL), TODAY()) as discharge

will do the job.

proc sql, case statement w/ today() date substitution

_LB — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:50:51 GMT

Thanks Hobbes! Worked beautifully!

proc sql, case statement w/ today() date substitution

Howles — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:49:17 GMT

Logic is incorrect. The two WHEN branches exhaust all possibilities, so the ELSE branch can never be triggered. The second WHEN branch of the CASE should test the alternate date; something like this ...

WHEN DIS.DISCHARGE_DATE_ACTUAL NE . THEN DATEPART(DIS.DISCHARGE_DATE_ACTUAL)

~LB wrote:

Hello all,

I have, what I think is a simple of piece of code that I am asking for a simple date subsititution during a case statement.

In essence, if the main date (DISCHDT) field is blank it goes to another table (DISCHARGE_DATE_ACTUAL) and retrieves from there. If that is blank, then I want today's date-

Code is:

CASE WHEN A.DischDt NE . THEN A.DischDt

WHEN A.DischDt=. THEN DATEPART(DIS.DISCHARGE_DATE_ACTUAL)

ELSE TODAY() end as discharge format MMDDYY10.

The problem is that it will not substitute today's date when both fields are blank. I have tried different variations to no effect.

Any help grateful.

Thanks & have a great labor day.

~LB