topic INTCK('minute',X1,X2) in SAS Programming

INTCK('minute',X1,X2)

Ronein — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 07:04:28 GMT

Hello,

Lets say that there are 2 columns :X1

Each of them is sas date time column.

Lets say that the formatted values are:

X1=22AUG2022:09:35:00
X2=22AUG2022:09:26:06

LEts say that I want to calculate the difference in minutes between X1 and X2.

I am using intck as following:
INTCK('minute',X1,X2) as dif_in_minutes

My question:

Why am I getting minus 9 and not plus 9???
I was sure that the difference that is calculated is X1-X2 by but the result I see that it is X2-X1

Re: INTCK('minute',X1,X2)

PeterClemmensen — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 07:08:03 GMT

The answer is quite simple. As the INTCK Function Documentation says, it

Returns the number of interval boundaries of a given kind that lie between two dates, times, or datetime values.

Also:

INTCK returns a negative value whenever the first date(time) is later than the second date(time) and the two date(time)s are not in the same discrete interval.

Re: INTCK('minute',X1,X2)

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 07:48:26 GMT

The second argument is the from value, and the third argument is the to value. If "to" is before "from", the function returns a negative value.

If you only want to get the difference, irrespective of the order, use the ABS function around the INTCK.