topic Datetime to Date conversion question in SAS Programming

Datetime to Date conversion question

chappy — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 22:15:45 GMT

I am trying to convert datetime data to date data (Date9. format). The data was imported from MS Access (.mdb file created in Access 97). I've tried using

data mylib.datanew;

set mylib.dataold;

informate birthdate date9.;

format birthdate date9.;

run;

I get 1.48867E9 instead of 05MAR2007. The log gives the following message ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used. Any help appreciated

Re: Datetime to Date conversion question

Linlin — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 22:26:48 GMT

try:

new=datepart(old-variable);

Re: Datetime to Date conversion question

chappy — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 23:01:17 GMT

I tried this and now SAS has the new variable formatted as Best which is not any sensible date format. Could it be a problem with the SAS default formatting or is it something to do with the MS Access file format?

Thanks!

Re: Datetime to Date conversion question

art297 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 23:14:41 GMT

Did you assign a format to the new variable (e.g., date9.)?

Re: Datetime to Date conversion question

PGStats — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 23:23:29 GMT

You can even use

birthdate = datepart(birthdate);

if your objective is simply to remove the hour part from a date in an Access database table, you may leave the variable as a datetime value and use:

format birthdate datetime20.;

birthdate = intnx("DTDAY",birthdate,0);

Re: Datetime to Date conversion question

chappy — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:58:14 GMT

Thanks for all of your "codes of wisdom". I finally have figured out what works.

data mylib.data;

set mylib.data;

birthdate=datepart(birthdate);

format birthdate date9.;

run;

This returns birthdate values in the format 01JAN1960.

Thanks again