topic Changing STRING format INTO TIME format in SAS Procedures

Changing STRING format INTO TIME format

TRUST — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:10:29 GMT

Can someone help. I have a data with dates entered in STRING format. I will like to change in into the TIME format. I can do that in SPSS but failed to do it in SAS. The Data is in the form hh:MM:SS. When I checked the data using proc contents, it shows that the Times are in STRING format. This is how the data looks like: I tried to multiply TIME by 1, it did not work.

Time
10:20:30
09:08:08
09:06:50

Re: Changing STRING format INTO TIME format

deleted_user — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:38:16 GMT

Hi,

You can try the format time8. to convert the string to time number format.
But keep in mind that the output here which you get as a number will be the number of seconds starting from 1 Jan 1960 00:00:00
data test;
input timevar $10.;
timenum=input(timevar,time8.);
cards;
10:20:30
09:08:08
09:06:50
;
run;
proc print;
run;
Please check the following output.
10:20:30 37230
09:08:08 32888
09:06:50 32810

Thanks,
Saurabh.

Re: Changing STRING format INTO TIME format

TRUST — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:34:07 GMT

sorry it did not work. Currently the data that I have is in STRING FORMAT, I will like to convert it to TIME format. Sorry it did not work.

Re: Changing STRING format INTO TIME format

sbb — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:23:56 GMT

With SAS, your variables are either CHARACTER or NUMERIC type with an optional output FORMAT -- this can be identified with a PROC CONTENTS output report. The code example provided should properly convert your CHARACTER variable data string to a SAS NUMERIC type variable, where you would then need to apply a SAS FORMAT statement in your code.

If unsuccessful, suggest you share what SAS log you have demonstrating where the code is not working.

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

Re: Changing STRING format INTO TIME format

TRUST — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:23:05 GMT

Thank you very much. It is working. I do really appreciate.