topic Re: SAS Dates error message ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, && in SAS Programming

SAS Dates error message ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, &, *, **,

rajueric — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 20:06:06 GMT

Hi, I am looking at the SAS CSV USA-TSA Claim Data and I am getting this error: I am asked to create a column called Date_Issues where I track if there is an incorrect or unexpected formatting of the dates. It says that I should flag the date issues if either of the two date columns, Incident_Date or Date_Received, are outside the date range 2002-2017, or if Incident_Date>Date_Received. However, I am getting this error message when I do the inequality test:

 1          OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;
 68         
 69         data work.tsa_adjust;
 70             set work.tsa_claims;
 71             format Date_Received Incident_Date date9.;
 72             length Claim_Site Claim_Type Disposition $ 100;
 WARNING: Length of character variable Claim_Site has already been set. 
          Use the LENGTH statement as the very first statement in the DATA STEP to declare the length of a character variable.
 WARNING: Length of character variable Claim_Type has already been set. 
          Use the LENGTH statement as the very first statement in the DATA STEP to declare the length of a character variable.
 WARNING: Length of character variable Disposition has already been set. 
          Use the LENGTH statement as the very first statement in the DATA STEP to declare the length of a character variable.
 73             if (Claim_Site in('-' '') or Claim_Site=.) then Claim_Site='Unknown';
 74             if (Disposition in('-' '') or Disposition=.) then Disposition='Unknown';
 75             if (Claim_Type in('-' '') or Claim_Type=.) then Claim_Type='Unknown';
 76             if (Incident_Date=.) or (Incident_Date<'01JAN2002'd or Incident_Date>'31DEC2017'd))
                                                                                                  _
                                                                                                  22
                                                                                                  200
 ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, &, *, **, +, -, /, ;, <, <=, <>, =, >, ><, >=, AND, EQ, GE, GT, 
               IN, LE, LT, MAX, MIN, NE, NG, NL, NOT, NOTIN, OR, THEN, ^, ^=, |, ||, ~, ~=.  
 
 ERROR 200-322: The symbol is not recognized and will be ignored.
 
 77             then Date_Issues='Needs Review';
 78             if (Date_Received=.) or (Date_Received<'01JAN2002'd or Date_Received>'31DEC2017'd))
                                                                                                  _
                                                                                                  22
                                                                                                  200
 ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, &, *, **, +, -, /, ;, <, <=, <>, =, >, ><, >=, AND, EQ, GE, GT, 
               IN, LE, LT, MAX, MIN, NE, NG, NL, NOT, NOTIN, OR, THEN, ^, ^=, |, ||, ~, ~=.  
 
 ERROR 200-322: The symbol is not recognized and will be ignored.
 
 79             then Date_Issues='Needs Review';
 80         if (Incident_Date>Date_Received) then Date_Issues='Needs Review';

Re: SAS Dates error message ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, &&

data_null__ — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 20:55:12 GMT

The character that is underlined is right paren ). SAS is listing all the things that it "allows" in the context and ) is not in the list.

Remove the ) right paren and see what you get.

Re: SAS Dates error message ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, &&

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 06:16:12 GMT

Count opening vs. closing brackets in the incriminated statement.

Re: SAS Dates error message ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, &&

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 06:19:31 GMT

PS in SAS, the condition in an IF does not need to be enclosed in brackets, as the IF and THEN keywords already do this.

Re: SAS Dates error message ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, &&

Tom — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 00:44:28 GMT

It should be flagging the extra ) in the statement and not the date literal.

46   data _null_;
47    if (Incident_Date=.) or (Incident_Date<'01JAN2002'd or Incident_Date>'31DEC2017'd))
                                                                                        -
                                                                                        22
                                                                                        200
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, &, *, **, +, -, /, ;, <, <=, <>,
              =, >, ><, >=, AND, EQ, GE, GT, IN, LE, LT, MAX, MIN, NE, NG, NL, NOT, NOTIN, OR, THEN,
              ^, ^=, |, ||, ~, ~=.

ERROR 200-322: The symbol is not recognized and will be ignored.

48    then Date_Issues='Needs Review';
49   run;

But I was able to get SAS into a state where it did flag the date literal as an error.

825  data _null_;
826     if (Incident_Date=.) or (Incident_Date<'01JAN2002'd or Incident_Date>'31DEC2017'd))
                                               -
                                               390
                                               200
                                               76
ERROR 390-185: Expecting an relational or arithmetic operator.

ERROR 200-322: The symbol is not recognized and will be ignored.

ERROR 76-322: Syntax error, statement will be ignored.

827       then Date_Issues='Needs Review';
828  run;

Not sure if it was because of some hidden character I copied from your example code or some other previous syntax errors I had made in the same SAS session.

But starting a new SAS session got it back to normal behavior.