topic Re: simple question about the format in SAS Programming

simple question about the format

olgazabelinasas — Fri, 15 May 2020 12:29:35 GMT

Hello everyone! I will be very grateful if you help solve the problem.
I have two macro variables.
They look like this:

I want to create two new macro variables that should look exactly like this:

'29JAN16:11:07:33'dt and '29JAN16:14:21:01'dt

Is it possible? and if yes, please give the code

Re: simple question about the format

novinosrin — Fri, 15 May 2020 12:37:23 GMT

HI @olgazabelinasas Not sure if I am missing some puzzle here. Isn't this supposed to be as simple as



%let date_start=29JAN16:11:07:33;

%let date_start_new=%bquote('&date_start'dt);

%put &=date_start_new;

The same for the date_end. I am lazy to type

Re: simple question about the format

olgazabelinasas — Fri, 15 May 2020 12:41:34 GMT

sorry, it is not work 😞

Re: simple question about the format

PaigeMiller — Fri, 15 May 2020 12:44:56 GMT

I want to create two new macro variables that should look exactly like this:

'29JAN16:11:07:33'dt and '29JAN16:14:21:01'dt

Macro variables, in general, should not be formatted. They should be numbers, not human readable text strings like above.

sorry, it is not work

Well, it should work. Show us what you did, and show us the LOG from SAS (the entire log for this part of your code, including the code, the WARNINGs, and the ERRORs), and explain what did work.

Re: simple question about the format

novinosrin — Fri, 15 May 2020 12:46:09 GMT

what does not work?

Here is the log:

822  %let date_start=29JAN16:11:07:33;
823
824  %let date_start_new=%bquote('&date_start'dt);
825
826  %put &=date_start_new;
DATE_START_NEW='29JAN16:11:07:33'dt

Re: simple question about the format

olgazabelinasas — Fri, 15 May 2020 12:59:43 GMT

@PaigeMiller

So, at first

then

and i just want to see something like this

Re: simple question about the format

Tom — Fri, 15 May 2020 13:01:52 GMT

I have a couple of questions.

First it is not clear how you generated those photographs from MACRO variables. You don't normally browse macro variables in a tabular presentation like that. Can you just use %PUT to write the values to the log and copy the text from the log (don't take a picture of the text).

Do you really want single quotes? It would be easier to generate using double quotes since single quotes suppress macro triggers.

%put "&date_start"dt "&date_end"dt ;

Re: simple question about the format

PaigeMiller — Fri, 15 May 2020 13:07:01 GMT

We need to see the ENTIRE log of this sequence where you create a macro variable and then try to use it. We do not want you to chop parts out and only show us selected parts.

While I can't tell what the error is until I see the entire log, again I repeat that your macro variables should not be formatted. In this case, and any other cases where you compare a SAS date/time or date variable to a macro variable, formatting the macro variable does not help, and often causes the program to fail.

For future reference, we don't like to see code or log as screen captures.

When you signed up for the SAS communities, you should have received an e-mail stressing the importance of providing code in a "code box" which is the running man icon, and providing the log in a "code box" which is the </> icon. Please follow these guidelines.

Re: simple question about the format

novinosrin — Fri, 15 May 2020 13:08:52 GMT

Hi @olgazabelinasas

A slight modification to your code with %unquote to will work for the macro processor to function properly


where t1.t_start<=%unquote(&data_s);

albeit the bigger picture or purpose seems a little misleading

Re: simple question about the format

Tom — Fri, 15 May 2020 13:26:34 GMT

Are those dates from 2016 or 1916? Do not use 2 digit years.

Note there is a "feature" in the DATETIME format such that to get the 18 character string in style DDMONYYYY:HH:MM:SS with 4 digits for the year you must use a width of 19 in the format specification. DATETIME19. If you use DATETIME18 you get just the 16 character string with only two digits for year like in your example.

Re: simple question about the format

yabwon — Fri, 15 May 2020 13:44:09 GMT

Hi,

since you are using it in Proc SQL you can do it like this:

%let date_start=29JAN16:11:07:33; %let date_start_new="&date_start."dt;

Bart

Re: simple question about the format

Reeza — Fri, 15 May 2020 15:22:04 GMT

So it seems like you're trying to make a macro variable match what your code would look like if you were typing it out manually. However, you don't actually need to do that. SAS stores datestimes as numbers, counting the number of seconds from January 1, 1960.

If you convert it to an actual SAS datetime variable you can then use that in your code correctly. Ideally you should use the exact datetime format you're using but you can also do this. FYI - depending on how you created this macro variable in the first place it my be a good idea to change how it's stored from the start to avoid this issue entirely.

%let date_start = %sysfunc(inputn(29Jan16:11:07:33, anydtdtm.));
....



where t1.datetime <= &date_start;

Re: simple question about the format

ballardw — Fri, 15 May 2020 15:54:48 GMT

@Tom wrote:

I have a couple of questions.

First it is not clear how you generated those photographs from MACRO variables. You don't normally browse macro variables in a tabular presentation like that.

Maybe some use of the SASHELP.VMACRO view or the corresponding Dictionary table? Though I agree that looks somewhat suspicious.

Re: simple question about the format

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 15 May 2020 16:39:14 GMT

See Maxim 28. The raw, unformatted values work best.

Re: simple question about the format

olgazabelinasas — Fri, 15 May 2020 20:13:16 GMT

Thank you!

Re: simple question about the format

olgazabelinasas — Fri, 15 May 2020 20:13:26 GMT

Thank you!!!