topic Re: date variable in SAS Programming

date variable

Tawfiq — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 21:06:14 GMT

Hi,

Can someone tell me how to create a new variable named 'End_of_study' in the format 31/12/2012, which has to be the same for all entries/rows.

Regards,

Re: date variable

LinusH — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 21:12:38 GMT

This question, and a lot more, can be learned in the free online SAS Programming course.

Re: date variable

Astounding — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 21:14:47 GMT

data want;

set have;

retain End_of_Study '31Dec2012'd;

format End_of_Study ddmmyys10.;

run;

Re: date variable

ballardw — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 21:15:32 GMT

Data want;

set have;

End_of_study = '31DEC2012'd;

format End_of_study ddmmyy10.;

run;

Note that SAS only accepts one way to assign a date literal if you want to use it as a date value allowing use of the various date functions and formats.

Otherwise use a character value any way you want it.

Re: date variable

Reeza — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 22:23:27 GMT

Just a heads up to the free SAS training available that has been alluded to:

http://support.sas.com/training/tutorial/

Re: date variable

Tawfiq — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 02:27:03 GMT

Thanks all of you for the support.

I've come accross another question. I've imported a date variable from excell; but the format for the date variable is in text and perhaps this is why the missing values are not marked in "." BUT are just blank cells in SAS Viewtable.

I appreciate if someone can advise on how to format the text to sas date value (such as 01/12/2011)

Cheers,

Tawfiq

Re: date variable

Reeza — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 09:22:06 GMT

What do,the date values look like now?

It would be something like:

new_var = input (date_var, current_format.);

formate new_var ddmmyy10.;

Re: date variable

Tawfiq — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 20:40:46 GMT

Hi Reeza,

The variable is Last_date (see below). It's format is $10. My purpose is to
change it to numeric so that the blank rows will be filled with (.) or
missing values and the date format (ddmmyy10.) would allow me to use this
variable for creating new vars.

Last_date

01/12/2011

05/08/2010

I used

LRec_date=input (Last_date, $10.);
format LRec_date ddmmyy10.;

BUT the error message is this (The format $ddmmyy was not found or could
not be loaded)

Re: date variable

ballardw — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 22:19:12 GMT

Your code:

LRec_date=input (Last_date, $10.);
format LRec_date ddmmyy10.;

Creates a text variable, that is what input using the informat $10. does.

Try

LRec_date=input (Last_date, ddmmyy10.);
format LRec_date ddmmyy10.;

Re: date variable

Reeza — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 22:37:26 GMT

@Tawfiq Sorry, current format, means how it currently appears ie mmddyy, not the $10.

@ballardw solution is correct.

Re: date variable

Tawfiq — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 01:33:04 GMT

Hi,

It works. Thanks for the help!