convert character date to yyyy-mm-dd date format

[mona4u]

Hi all, 

I am trying to convert a character date to  yyyy-mm-dd data format 

this is a sample of the data that I have 

data have;
input start_date $;
datalines;
15/Nov/2015
;

[Reeza]

COMPRESS() to remove the / and INPUT() with DATE9 to read it in.

want = input(compress(start_date, '/'), date9.);

[ballardw]

---

@mona4u wrote:

Hi all, 

I am trying to convert a character date to  yyyy-mm-dd data format 

this is a sample of the data that I have 

data have;
input start_date $;
datalines;
15/Nov/2015
;

---

Please not that SAS documentation is pretty consistent about using MON for abbreviated month names. So your question and title would be better phrased as "convert character date in dd/mon/yyyy format to a date value". Once you have a date value then format used is situational.

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

First of all: testing of code is not a crime, but a necessity.

If you run your code:

data have;
input start_date $;
datalines;
15/Nov/2015
;
run;

and look at the resulting dataset, you will find that the character date has been truncated to 8 characters. This is because you did not explicitly set a length (Maxim 47) and SAS therefore defaulted to 8.

With a very slight change, the code works:

data have;
input start_date :$11.;
datalines;
15/Nov/2015
;
run;

By simply changing the informat to a date format, and assigning the wanted display format, you will achieve what you want:

data have;
input start_date :date11.;
format start_date yymmddd10.;
datalines;
15/Nov/2015
;
run;

or by running the following conversion step on your original data:

data have;
input start_date :$11.;
datalines;
15/Nov/2015
;
run;

data want;
set have (rename=(start_date=_start_date));
start_date = input(_start_date,date11.);
format start_date yymmddd10.;
drop _start_date;
run;