topic Re: Convert date to a literal in SAS Programming

Convert date to a literal

Jagadeesh2907 — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 11:40:37 GMT

I have a macro variable which has the date in a below format.

%let yyyymmdd_d1 = 20181201;

I want to use this in a condition where my dataset has a source_date value as number 8 and format yymmdd10. please help for this scenario.

Example code:

In the below code, this will work if i hardcode the dates. But if i want to use this macro variable, it will not accept since the source_date value in the customer dataset is in num8 and with format yymmdd10.

proc sql;

create table work.inventory as

select cust_nbr, annual_income
from customer_&yyyymmdd_d1
where source_date eq "01Dec2018"d;
QUIT;

Re: Convert date to a literal

RW9 — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 11:51:16 GMT

Something like:

proc sql;  
  create table work.inventory as
  select cust_nbr, 
         annual_income
  from   customer_&yyyymmdd_d1
  where  source_date eq input("&yyyymmdd_d1.",yymmdd8.);
quit;

Re: Convert date to a literal

Jagadeesh2907 — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 12:03:22 GMT

Hi,

Thank you for the solution. Can you tell me what is the variable type of a macro ? will it be treated as character or will be based on the value of the macro variable ?

Re: Convert date to a literal

RW9 — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 12:32:54 GMT

Macro varibles are always text. They cannot be anything else. Macro is a find/replace text generator which happens before code compilation. This is why we always recommend to use Base SAS - this is the programming language with all the data types, functions etc. and that which gets compiled, rather than using macro which is nothing more than a find/replace system. Macro has its place, but that place is not to replace Base SAS coding.