topic Re: Creating a data set with time formats in SAS Programming

Creating a data set with time formats

ACLAN — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 13:19:27 GMT

Hi. I'm new to SAS and I am trying to create a dataset with the following code:

data dtest;
input patient_id $
patient_name $;
format enttime time8.
draw1 time8.
tdiff time8.;
datalines;
18C020 Garcia 11:45:00 11:50:00 00:07:00
17C222 Gibson 11:43:00 11:47:00 00:04:00
18C023 Knapp 11:42:00 11:45:00 00:43:00
10C032 Mueller 09:11:00 11:47:00 02:36:00
;
run;

The code runs without any errors but when I check the created dataset, the variables enttime, draw1 and tdiff have missing values.

I'm defining the time with time8 which is suppose to represent time in the hh:mm:ss format but it doesn't work.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

Re: Creating a data set with time formats

PaigeMiller — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 13:30:48 GMT

You have never given enttime draw and tdiff a value. You have not told SAS to read them in. You have only given them a format.

Something like this will work

data dtest;
input patient_id $ patient_name $ (enttime draw1 tdiff) (time8. +1);
format enttime draw1 tdiff time8.;
datalines;
18C020 Garcia 11:45:00 11:50:00 00:07:00
17C222 Gibson 11:43:00 11:47:00 00:04:00
18C023 Knapp 11:42:00 11:45:00 00:43:00
10C032 Mueller 09:11:00 11:47:00 02:36:00
;
run;

Re: Creating a data set with time formats

ACLAN — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 13:34:35 GMT

It works. Just a question: why do you use +1 in: input patient_id $ patient_name $ (enttime draw1 tdiff) (time8. +1);?

Re: Creating a data set with time formats

PaigeMiller — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 13:41:07 GMT

The +1 tells SAS to skip one character (in this case, a space between the different variables) and then start reading the next variable.

If you leave out the +1, you get NOTEs in the LOG, and you can see from what the LOG is saying that SAS is trying to read the last variable in the wrong columns.