topic Convert numeric Date to Character in SAS Programming

Convert numeric Date to Character

Ronein — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 04:59:17 GMT

Hello

What is the meaning of "-L" in following code and why do we need it?

I see that I get same result without using "-L"

data example;
   x1=201711;/*Numeric date  201711*/
   x2=put(x1,6.);/*char date  201711*/
   x2_way2=put(x1,6.-L);/*char date  201711*/
run;

Re: Convert numeric Date to Character

Astounding — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 05:49:45 GMT

L = Left

It left-hand justifies the six characters returned by the PUT function. You can explore this by adding:

put '*' x2 char6. '*';
put '*' x2_way2 char6. '*';

Re: Convert numeric Date to Character

Ronein — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 06:13:59 GMT

Hello

Thank you for the answer.

I still don;t understand .

In both cases(with and without "-L" I see same result *201711*

Can you show an example when it effect the result?

Re: Convert numeric Date to Character

Kurt_Bremser — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 07:42:43 GMT

You don't see a difference because the length of the format matches the number of digits, so there are no leading spaces.

Run this as an example:

data example;
   x1=201711; /*Numeric date  201711*/
   x2=put(x1,8.); /*char date  201711*/
   x2_way2=put(x1,8.-L); /*char date  201711*/
   put '*' x2 char8. '*';
   put '*' x2_way2 char8. '*'; 
run;

Re: Convert numeric Date to Character

Astounding — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 09:47:23 GMT

So far so good. Now comes the "explore" part. Try different values for x1, such as 1711 or 20. Other than that, the program can stay the same.