topic Re: Date values in SAS Programming

Date values

Aexor — Wed, 26 May 2021 12:10:00 GMT

Hi,

is there any way to find out the particular variable consist date values ?

I know we can run PROC contents , is there any other way to find out ??

Thanks!

Re: Date values

PaigeMiller — Wed, 26 May 2021 12:17:42 GMT

You can look at the data set with your own eyes.

You can see if the variable name indicates that this is a Date (although there's no guarantee the variable name is correct)

And you can use Maxim 3, Know Your Data.

Re: Date values

CarmineVerrell — Wed, 26 May 2021 12:18:46 GMT

There are ,

1) visually you can open the data

2) if there is a data dictionary that exist.

3) there might be also labels included to describe what that column variable is.

Re: Date values

Ksharp — Wed, 26 May 2021 13:49:09 GMT

Try FMTINFO() .

https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Determine-the-column-type-DATE-DATETIME-TIME-based-on-the-SAS/m-p/633586

Re: Date values

Ksharp — Wed, 26 May 2021 13:56:05 GMT

data have;
 set sashelp.stocks;
 fmt_date=fmtinfo(compress(vformat(date),,'ka'),'cat');
fmt_open=fmtinfo(compress(vformat(open),,'ka'),'cat');
run;

Re: Date values

Ksharp — Thu, 27 May 2021 11:43:15 GMT

Or you could try dictionary table instead of my data step .

data want;
set sashelp.vcolumn(where=(libname='SASHELP' and memname='STOCKS'));
is_date=fmtinfo(compress(format,,'ka'),'cat');
run;

Re: Date values

PaigeMiller — Wed, 26 May 2021 15:40:22 GMT

The only problem with FMTINFO is that variables can be dates but not have a format, or they can be character (yes, I know they are not SAS dates, but they are human readable dates) as in this recent discussion. So, FMTINFO will work in some situations and not others, which is why Maxim 3 is so useful, it works in all situations, but it requires more effort on the part of the user.