How to change a date in Character format to numeric format

[hjjijkkl]

Hello,

I have a dataset formatted in mmddyy10. but when I run the data, it keeps on telling me its in a character format even though it looks like in numeric format. How can I fix this? 

When I open the dataset this is what it looks like. 

Data

03/20/1997

.

04/21/2002

05/7/2019

[novinosrin]

HI @hjjijkkl  Please run a PROC CONTENTS to check whether your Date variable is numeric/char. 

proc contents data=your_dataset;

run;

then do the conversion and formatting

[hjjijkkl]

Yes, I did proc content and it is saying data variable is Char. How do I change the format after proc content?

[ballardw]

---

@hjjijkkl wrote:
Yes, I did proc content and it is saying data variable is Char. How do I change the format after proc content?

---

Create a new data set with a new variable:

data want;
   set have;
   newdate = input(chardate,mmddyy10.);
   format newdate mmddyy10.;
run;

Or possibly go back to the step where where the data was read into SAS and use the mmddyy10. informat to read the value.

[novinosrin · Accepted solution]

Data dates;
input char_Date :$12.;
cards;
03/20/1997
.
04/21/2002
05/7/2019
;

data num_sas_date;
 set dates;
 num_date=input(char_Date,mmddyy10.);
 format num_date mmddyy10.;
run;