topic How to calculate the difference between two datetimes in minutes? in SAS Enterprise Guide

How to calculate the difference between two datetimes in minutes?

Andalusia — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 05:28:03 GMT

I tried to calculate Diff by doing computed column > Advanced expression and then `datetime() - t1.datetime / 60 `. Diff is actually the difference between SAS_update and DateTime, SAS_Update is just the lastruntime (datetime())

This is what I got:

I get a very weird value but I expected Diff to have value -1 because there is a a difference of -1 minutes between them SAS_update and DateTime...

Re: How to calculate the difference between two datetimes in minutes?

andreas_lds — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 05:50:29 GMT

Use the function intck.

Datetime-variables are, without a format, the number of seconds passed from 1Jan1960 to the actual datetime. The function takes care of the details, if you need the difference in minutes, then use "dtminute" as interval.

Re: How to calculate the difference between two datetimes in minutes?

Andalusia — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 05:53:00 GMT

Could you show an example?

Re: How to calculate the difference between two datetimes in minutes?

Astounding — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 06:58:01 GMT

Your approach is OK, but you need to add parentheses. Without them, SAS performs division first, then subtraction. Use parentheses to force the subtraction to take place first.

Re: How to calculate the difference between two datetimes in minutes?

Kurt_Bremser — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 09:42:02 GMT

@Andalusia wrote:
Could you show an example?

Looks like this:

intck('minute',t1.datetime,datetime(),"c")

The "c" (for continuous) means that difference / 60 is used, and not the count of minute boundaries between the two values (90 seconds difference can turn out to be 2 minutes if the default is used).

For reference, run this:

data _null_;
time = datetime();
rc = sleep (119,1);
diff1 = intck('minute',time,datetime(),"c");
diff2 = intck('minute',time,datetime());
put _all_;
run;