topic Changing a character date var to a real date var in SAS Programming

Changing a character date var to a real date var

Mgarret — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 13:18:29 GMT

Hi,

I have a character variable that has a date string in it, so its not a real date variable but I need to change it to one. The values look like this.

Apr-01-2015

Apr-05-2015

Mar-05-2015

May-10-2015

I have been trying various of syntax and functions but I haven't been able to figure-out the right combination. This is what I have so far:

order_date_new2= input(compress(order_date,'-'), yymmdd8.);

Any help is appreciated!

Re: Changing a character date var to a real date var

arodriguez — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 13:23:57 GMT

Hi,

The syntax that you have use is almost OK. The format yymmdd, as far as I know, need First the year, then month and last Day, if you have dates in that format, I'm sure that is better ways to do it, but I will use Date9

date_real=input(scan(order_date,2,'-')||scan(order_date,1,'-')||scan(order_date,3,'-'),date9.);

Re: Changing a character date var to a real date var

Mgarret — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 13:43:06 GMT

Perfect. Thanks!

Re: Changing a character date var to a real date var

data_null__ — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 14:30:03 GMT

There is an INFORMAT that will work too. Remember to RTM.

data _null_; 
   x = input('Apr-01-2015',anydtdte11.);
   put x= x=date9.; 
   run; 

23         data _null_;
24            x = input('Apr-01-2015',anydtdte11.);
25            put x= x=date9.; 
26            run;

x=20179 x=01APR2015