topic Date informat assistance in SAS Programming

Date informat assistance

Q1983 — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 16:55:41 GMT

%let mydate = %sysfunc(putn(%sysfunc(intnx(day, %sysfunc(today()), -1, end)), 
yymmddd8.));
%put &mydate;/*SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable MYDATE resolves to 21-06-09*/

However I want this output 2020-06-09 or what ever the date is
I tried yyymmdd10 with no result

Re: Date informat assistance

Reeza — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 17:06:06 GMT

69 %let mydate = %sysfunc(putn(%sysfunc(intnx(day, %sysfunc(today()), -1, end)), yymmddd10.));
70 %put &mydate;/*SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable MYDATE resolves to 21-06-09*/
2021-06-09

Works fine for me.

@Q1983 wrote:
%let mydate = %sysfunc(putn(%sysfunc(intnx(day, %sysfunc(today()), -1, end)), 
yymmddd8.));
%put &mydate;/*SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable MYDATE resolves to 21-06-09*/
However I want this output 2020-06-09 or what ever the date is
I tried yyymmdd10 with no result

Re: Date informat assistance

PaigeMiller — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 17:16:20 GMT

Format should be yymmddd10.

The old triple-Sysfunc! Much easier to do this in a data step, and then you don't have to type as much, and you have fewer chances to misplace a parenthesis.

data _null_;
    call symputx('mydate',put(today()-1,yymmddd10.));
run;
%put &=mydate;

Another advice: most of the time, macro variables SHOULD NOT be formatted. If you do format your macro variable, as you have done, this just makes future coding with the macro variable more complex. So you should usually leave macro variables unformatted. See Maxim 28. (There are exceptions, like if you want to use the macro variable in a title or label or sometimes when an external database requires dates as character strings)

Re: Date informat assistance

ballardw — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 17:23:57 GMT

@Q1983 wrote:
%let mydate = %sysfunc(putn(%sysfunc(intnx(day, %sysfunc(today()), -1, end)), 
yymmddd8.));
%put &mydate;/*SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable MYDATE resolves to 21-06-09*/
However I want this output 2020-06-09 or what ever the date is
I tried yyymmdd10 with no result

Devils advocate: if you want 10 characters (count them in 2020-06-09) why did you use a format that only displays 8: yymmddd8. ? When you add the dashes that leaves 6 characters for the actual date.

I don't know what your Symbolgen says but that displays as 21-06-09 when I run the code on 09JUN2021.

Are you sure you have the right system clock setting for date?

Re: Date informat assistance

data_null__ — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 20:07:39 GMT

@Q1983 wrote:
%let mydate = %sysfunc(putn(%sysfunc(intnx(day, %sysfunc(today()), -1, end)), 
yymmddd8.));
%put &mydate;/*SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable MYDATE resolves to 21-06-09*/
However I want this output 2020-06-09 or what ever the date is
I tried yyymmdd10 with no result

You should use the SYSFUNC format parameter. No need for %SYSFUNC(PUTN

55         %let mydate = %sysfunc(intnx(day,%sysfunc(today()),-1,end),yymmddd10);
56         %put &mydate Using SYSFUNC format parameter;
2021-06-09 Using SYSFUNC format parameter