Macro to hold 1 week back date

[adityaa9z]

Can someone help me with a macro that holds one week back date whenever ran?

data _null_;
call symput('yesterday', put(today()-8, mmddyy10.));
run;

&yesterday;

This is my code. Any better way using intnx or something else?

[PaigeMiller]

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@adityaa9z wrote:

Can someone help me with a macro that holds one week back date whenever ran?

data _null_;
call symput('yesterday', put(today()-8, mmddyy10.));
run;

&yesterday;

This is my code. Any better way using intnx or something else?

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Your code looks fine, intnx should give the same result so there's really no reason to prefer one over the other.

Your last line should say

%put &yesterday;

I would ask the question about why you want format mmddyy10.  if you are going to use &yesterday in labels or titles, then that's a good format to use; if you are going to use this number in calculations, then you don't want a format. Also, it's not clear to me why you want -8 instead of -7, but that's entirely up to you. 

[art297 · Accepted solution]

I'll go a step further than @PaigeMiller: why bother using a put statement to convert the number (date) into a character form regardless of how it is formatted? Also, you don't even need a datastep. e.g.:

%let yesterday=%eval(%sysfunc(today())-8);

%put &yesterday;

[PaigeMiller]

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@art297 wrote:

why bother using a put statement to convert the number (date) into a character form regardless of how it is formatted?

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For use in a TITLE statement?

For use in a LABEL statement?

[art297]

Agreed .. IF that is how it is going to be used! However, NOT if it is only going to be used as a SAS date.

However, back to what I think @adityaa9z was asking, there is NO better way to calculate eight days before a date than doing what you did: a simple subtraction.

Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com

[PaigeMiller]

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@art297 wrote:

Agreed .. IF that is how it is going to be used! However, NOT if it is only going to be used as a SAS date.

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So we're in agreement, and we're both saying the same thing!