topic Re: Change DATETIME to DATE9. in SAS Programming

Change DATETIME to DATE9.

scolitti1 — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 17:02:31 GMT

I have this dataset and I there is a variable that is in the DATETIME format and I want it in the DATE9. format.

My code:

data a;
set casesdat.cases;
discharge = DatePart(Date_Discharged);
run;

data b;
set a;
format discharge date9.;
where '01jan2020'd <= discharge <= '20dec2020'd;
run;

The errors that come up:

I used a libname statement to read in the dataset and I double checked that the variables are in the right format with a proc contents.

Re: Change DATETIME to DATE9.

Reeza — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 17:14:05 GMT

Show the log from the prior set of code as well - I suspect there's an error that needs to be fixed first.
My guess is that date_discharged is character, not datetime but not sure.

Re: Change DATETIME to DATE9.

PaigeMiller — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 17:14:58 GMT

You are getting these errors because variable DISCHARGE is character, it is not numeric, and so the formatting and WHERE statement will not work (these are expecting numeric values)

Re: Change DATETIME to DATE9.

Windata — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 17:14:48 GMT

You should specify the date9. format in the first data step - see below. Also, I think you can do the where clause in the same data step as well.

data a;
set casesdat.cases;
format discharge date9.;
discharge = DatePart(Date_Discharged);

where '01jan2020'd <= discharge <= '20dec2020'd;
run;

Re: Change DATETIME to DATE9.

Tom — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 17:29:36 GMT

@Windata wrote:
You should specify the date9. format in the first data step - see below. Also, I think you can do the where clause in the same data step as well.

data a;
set casesdat.cases;
format discharge date9.;
discharge = DatePart(Date_Discharged);

where '01jan2020'd <= discharge <= '20dec2020'd;
run;

You cannot reference the derived variable in the WHERE clause. The where clause filters the data on the way into the data step, so it happens before DISCHARGE is created.

You could use a subsetting IF instead.

Or reference the original variable in the WHERE clause. Either using appropriate datetime literals or using the DATEPART() function.

if '01jan2020'd <= discharge <= '20dec2020'd;
where '01jan2020:00:00'dt <= Date_discharged < '21dec2020:00:00'dt;
where '01jan2020'd <= datepart(Date_discharged) <= '20dec2020'd;