topic How to convert a formatted SAS Date variable to a character variable? in SAS Programming

How to convert a formatted SAS Date variable to a character variable?

EC27556 — Tue, 10 May 2022 13:55:16 GMT

I have date variables that are formatted dd/mm/yyyy.

Is it possible to character variables where the values are equal to dd/mm/yyyy?

(Context: I am trying to run a proc report and the date values are not showing up correctly (missing out the "/"s and each part is on a separate line. I'm hoping that by using character variables it might resolve this issue).

Re: How to convert a formatted SAS Date variable to a character variable?

PaigeMiller — Tue, 10 May 2022 14:37:17 GMT

If you are running a report (via PROC REPORT or PROC TABULATE), you DO NOT need character strings.

In PROC REPORT, you can use the option

proc report split='~';

and now the / character is not interpreted as a line-break.

Re: How to convert a formatted SAS Date variable to a character variable?

EC27556 — Tue, 10 May 2022 14:40:31 GMT

Wow, legend, thank you!

Re: How to convert a formatted SAS Date variable to a character variable?

AMSAS — Tue, 10 May 2022 14:49:26 GMT

Can you provide some sample code.
I just attempted the following and my dates aren't being split

data have ;
	format date ddmmyy6. ;
	do date=today() to today()+3 ;
		dateC=putn(date,"DDMMYY10.") ;
		output ;
	end ;
run ;

proc report split='/';
	column date datec ;
run ;

Output:

date	dateC
100522	10/05/2022
110522	11/05/2022
120522	12/05/2022
130522	13/05/2022

Re: How to convert a formatted SAS Date variable to a character variable?

PaigeMiller — Tue, 10 May 2022 14:53:45 GMT

I think the issue (I'm speculating) is that dates as column headers have the problem. Dates in the rest of the table shouldn't have the problem.