topic Re: Get Date Column in SAS Programming

Get Date Column

omega1983 — Wed, 29 May 2013 12:16:32 GMT

I wrote a proc sql to pull in ID, NAME, LS_DATE1 through 4

proc sql;

create table Test as

select ID,NAME,LS_DATE1,LS_DATE2.........etc

from my_table;

quit;

Some rows will have the LS_DATES populated (Not All). Each row will usually only have one date in one of the LS_DATE columns. If there are multiple dates in multiple columns in the same row, I want the last date that appears. I want to get the date and place it in its own GET_DATE column with the same value. I will use the GET_DATE in calulating the difference in days later.

So I need two examples, one that assumes only one date per column per row and another that looks for the last date in a row if there are multiples.

SAMPLE

ID NAME LS_DATE1 LS_DATE2 LS_DATE3 LS_DATE4

1 Smith 4/15/12

2 Bryant 1/12/13

3 Jones 5/1/13

4 Thomas 12/13/06

Re: Get Date Column

Haikuo — Wed, 29 May 2013 13:08:58 GMT

If those dates are numeric, use coalesce(), otherwise use coalescec():

proc sql;

create table Test as

select ID,NAME,coalesce(LS_DATE4,LS_DATE3, LS_DATE2,LS_DATE1) as GET_DATE /*put the last date first*/

from my_table;

quit;

HTH,

Haikuo

Re: Get Date Column

omega1983 — Wed, 29 May 2013 14:06:06 GMT

data Test

set Test1;

Get_Date=coalesce(LS_DATE1

LS_DATE2 LS_DATE3 Ltr_Dt 😞

run

How can I do the same thing except in a dataset. All these variables are dates

Re: Get Date Column

Haikuo — Wed, 29 May 2013 15:17:08 GMT

If you need a fast pass for solving your imminent issues, you already have one. If you want to learn how it works inside-out, now it is good for you to spend sometime reading the manual:

SAS(R) 9.3 Functions and CALL Routines: Reference

Re: Get Date Column

NishunkSaxena — Thu, 30 May 2013 04:05:49 GMT

This is a new function for me Coalasce for numeric and coalescec for string. Read articles realted to it on google and to be frank this is a very helpful function for me......Thanks guys