topic Re: yearcutoff problem. in SAS Programming

yearcutoff problem.

rajvir — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 22:52:46 GMT

1)Suppose the YEARCUTOFF= system option is set to 1920. An input file contains the date expression 12/08/1925, which is being read with the MMDDYY8. informat. Which date will appear in your data?

: The answer is 08DEC2019

I felt the answer would be 08DEC1925 , as 1920-2019 will be range if yearcutoff=1920.

Experts pls help me out with this problem.

Thanks

Raj

Re: yearcutoff problem.

Reeza — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 23:02:34 GMT

Your issue isn't with YEARCUTOFF per se, but with the format.

If it's MMDDYY10 - it uses the whole year.

But if it's MMDDYY8 - it sees

12/08/19 -> 2019

Re: yearcutoff problem.

rajvir — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 23:05:20 GMT

the date is 12/08/1925,

Re: yearcutoff problem.

SASKiwi — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 23:51:15 GMT

Your informat should be MMDDYY10. - the length includes the forward slashes. This is a data truncation problem - you are reading 12/08/19 when you should be reading 12/08/1925. The YEARCUTOFF option is irrelevant in this case as you have the complete date including the century.

Re: yearcutoff problem.

Astounding — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 03:20:43 GMT

Just saying the same thing in different words ...

The MMDDYY8 informat means, "Read 8 characters. Expect them to be in month+day+year form. Interpret and convert what you find within those 8 characters."

So the data contains 12/08/1925. But the MMDDYY8 informat specifically instructs the software to read the first 8 of those 10 characters. It never reads the "25" at the end, only the "12/08/19".

Re: yearcutoff problem.

rajvir — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 03:40:43 GMT

Thanks now got it 🙂