Converting Dates

[MagD]

Hi everyone,

Please help me with this query. I want to convert this date 20DEC2019:12:49:00.000 to 20DEC2019.

[PaigeMiller]

Use the DATEPART() function and apply the DATE9. format 

[MagD]

Hey Paige

I used this data step:

data test;
set hello;
AppDate1 = put(datepart(AppDate),date9.);
run;

AppDate1 comes out as desired (20DEC2019) but it gets converted into a character variable and I need it as a date.

[Tom]

The first one looks like a DATETIME value, not a DATE value.

SAS stores DATETIME values as number of seconds since 1960 and DATE values as number of days since 1960.

To convert the number of seconds into number of days you can use the DATEPART() function.  You will then need to use a  date type format, like the DATE format that display in the style you showed, with the new value.

If you just want to change how the value is displayed you can just change the FORMAT used to display the value without changing the value that is stored.  The DTDATE format will display datetime values in the style that the DATE format displays date values.

[MagD]

Hey Tom,

I used this data step:

data test;
set hello;
AppDate1 = put(datepart(AppDate),date9.);
run;

AppDate1 comes out as desired (20DEC2019) but it gets converted into a character varaible and I need it as a date.

[Tom · Accepted solution]

Why did you use PUT() to convert it to character if you didn't want a character variable?

Might help to use more descriptive names for the variables.

data test;
  set hello;
  AppDate1 = datepart(AppDate);
  format appdate1 date9.;
  rename appdate=AppDatetime appdate1=AppDate ;
run;

[MagD]

Thanks Tom, it worked perfectly.

[Kurt_Bremser]

The PUT function takes stuff (character or numeric), and converts it to character according to the used format.

You do not want it here. Just use the DATEPART function and a FORMAT statement:

data test;
set hello;
AppDate1 = datepart(AppDate);
format Appdate1 date9.;
run;