topic Convert a character variable to sas date in SAS Programming

Convert a character variable to sas date

xliu1 — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 03:19:00 GMT

I need to convert a character variable which is in the format of '200905' (i.e., year and month) to a sas date format YYMMDw. which keeps the year and month

Degree_Term=input(TERM_DEG_GRANT, YYMMD7.)

I keep getting error message in sas log: The informat YYMMD was not found or could not be loaded.

Anyone can help me how to modify the code? Thanks!

Re: Convert a character variable to sas date

Tom — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 03:44:20 GMT

To convert text to values you need to use an INFORMAT. Formats are for converting values to text.

There is no informat with that name.

There is on named YYMMN that will read strings with just year and month. The returned date will be the first day of the month.

Re: Convert a character variable to sas date

ChrisNZ — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 04:12:28 GMT

The message is pretty clear:

The informat YYMMD was not found or could not be loaded.

This informat does not exist. You cannot make up informat names that don't exist.

For the string you have, the informat to use is yymmn. as explained above.

Re: Convert a character variable to sas date

ballardw — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 05:09:15 GMT

@ChrisNZ wrote:

The message is pretty clear:

The informat YYMMD was not found or could not be loaded.

This informat does not exist. You cannot make up informat names that don't exist.

For the string you have, the informat to use is yymmn. as explained above.

Unless you write the code yourself ...

Not interested in writing many custom date informats though.😏