topic How to replace the asterisk in a date value in SAS Programming

How to replace the asterisk in a date value

Jeff_DOC — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 22:49:42 GMT

I would be most appreciative for any help someone could give me.

I have date values in records where the data scanning process (for some reason) includes an asterisk within the date value. The date is converted to a string when it's scanned so the asterisk is allowed. I can convert the string date to a true date but I am faced with multiple errors because of the asterisks. I've tried various iterations of tranwrd and compress but I can't seem to get it right. I think, (perhaps mistakenly), that the asterisk is being treated as a wildcard in those functions?

Alternatively I could simple exclude anything that is not a valid date since the imperfect scanning process gives me results such as:

00/23/2009

04/2 /90 9

Thanks for any help you might be able to provide.

Sample data:

*6/08/2009

5/*1/2009

Re: How to replace the asterisk in a date value

Astounding — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 23:05:38 GMT

You're using the right tools ... maybe just not quite in the right way. Try:

chardate = compress(chardate, '* ');

numdate = input(chardate, mmddyy10.);

Re: How to replace the asterisk in a date value

Jeff_DOC — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 23:20:54 GMT

Thank you for the response but it doesn't work. It could be I have something else going on here. Here is what I used:

temp_date = compress(date,'*');

surveydate = input(temp_date,mmddyy10.);

And here is what I got back:

NOTE: Invalid argument to function INPUT at line 24 column 15.

month=June2009 idnumber=111111111 date=06/04/* 77

Re: How to replace the asterisk in a date value

Reeza — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 00:51:55 GMT

Post the actual log. For example, what's the value of temp_date.

Re: How to replace the asterisk in a date value

Reeza — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 02:32:56 GMT

Look very closely at @Astounding code sample. It includes both an asterisk AND a space in the arguments to the compress function.

If you modify your compress function it will work.

If you look at the error in your log closely you'll see the extra space (red underscore here).

NOTE: Invalid argument to function INPUT at line 58 column 14.

surveydate=. date=06/04/* 77 temp_date=06/04/_77 _ERROR_=1 _N_=1

Re: How to replace the asterisk in a date value

PGStats — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 03:16:36 GMT

You got month=June2009 and date=06/04/* 77, are those two fields supposed to be related?

Re: How to replace the asterisk in a date value

Jeff_DOC — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 15:23:46 GMT

Thanks for calling my attention to that. I didn't see it.

I appreciate all your help.

Re: How to replace the asterisk in a date value

Jeff_DOC — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 15:26:17 GMT

Thank you. I appreciate all the help for everyone.

Happy Friday.