topic Re: How to convert a year column in sas in SAS Software for Learning Community

How to convert a year column in sas

ephraim_1234 — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 21:02:41 GMT

So, I have a column for just years but its showing as a numeric value in sas.

How do I convert it to years in sas studio.

What I tried

- I tried the ttransforming the data but I keep running to an error because I dont know the exact Format

Re: How to convert a year column in sas

lhartjordan — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 21:06:01 GMT

Do you want it to be a character column or a SAS date value?

Re: How to convert a year column in sas

ephraim_1234 — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 21:07:07 GMT

I want it to be a date

Re: How to convert a year column in sas

Reeza — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 21:23:48 GMT

SAS dates require a month/day component as well, so it's not a conversion, more of a calculation at that point. You can create a new variable using the MDY function and provide 1, 1 for the month/day. Then format with YEAR4 to get the same value. I am not sure what value that will add overall though.

Re: How to convert a year column in sas

ephraim_1234 — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 21:37:28 GMT

Alright, thanks.

can you give me like a sample code idea for it. I will work out the rest...

data have;
input Time;
datalines;
2011
2010
2004
;
run;
/* Create a new variable with January 1st of each year */
data want;
set have;
/* using MDY function with January 1st */
new_date = mdy(1, 1, year);
format new_date year4.; /* Format the date to display only the year */
run;

Tried this, it didnt work...

Re: How to convert a year column in sas

Reeza — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 22:21:27 GMT

You called the variable you read in time but then used the variable as YEAR in the second data step. Otherwise the approach is correct.