topic How to select an observation with a specific date and time in the datetime20. format in SAS Programming

How to select an observation with a specific date and time in the datetime20. format

ChickenLittle — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 09:10:19 GMT

I have a table of observations with associated purchase date and time in the datetime20. format. However, I cannot seem to search by a specific date and time, I can only try to pull the observation by putting boundaries (re: greater than or less than) on the date and time. Is there a where function I can use to just to pull it directly?

I have:

obs Purchasedate. Account

1 01Jun2024:19:48:02 A
2 01Jun2024:20:22:01 B
3 01Jun2024:20:30:08 C
4. 01Jun2024:20:50:06 D

Current code not working:
data temp;

set orders;

where purchasedate = ‘01Jun2024:20:30:08’dt;

run;

What I want to see in my result is Obs 3. However, it’s not pulling anything.

Re: How to select an observation with a specific date and time in the datetime20. format

PaigeMiller — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 10:08:44 GMT

You have to remove the curly quotes and use straight quotes.

data temp;
set orders;
where purchasedate = '01Jun2024:20:30:08'dt;
run;

Please use code boxes from now on when you enter code. You click on the "little running man" icon and paste your code into the window that appears.

Re: How to select an observation with a specific date and time in the datetime20. format

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 11:05:46 GMT

Always (as in ALWAYS) post the complete log of the step that does not work as expected. The log is our #1 diagnostic tool, and there's a reason why Maxim 2 is second only to Maxim 1 (Read the Documentation).

Copy/paste the log text into a window opened with this button:

If your code did not throw an ERROR because of the curly quotes, then you most likely have fractions of a second in your datetime values. Use the ROUND function to remove them.

Re: How to select an observation with a specific date and time in the datetime20. format

ChickenLittle — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 12:42:25 GMT

The rounding was the trick! And thanks for pointing out the insert code feature. Really appreciate it!