numeric advanced expression (sas enterprise) need to return date or create date but getting error

[maliksmom2000]

I need to return an existing date from a column or for it to assign a specific date "12-31-2016" but I am getting the following error:

4 PROC SQL NOEXEC;
5 SELECT (ifn(t1.consolidated is not missing, t1.consolidated, "12-31-2016")) AS CALCULATION
6 FROM WORK.QUERY_FOR_MERGEDFINALANDANCHORDA t1;
ERROR: Function IFN requires a numeric expression as argument 3.

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

See the documentation for SAS constants: https://documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=pgmsascdc&cdcVersion=9.4_3.4&docsetId=lrcon&docsetTarget=p0cq7f...

A SAS date constant (or literal in SAS parlance) needs to be written in the form

"DDMMMYYYY"d

where DD is the day of the month, MMM the month spelled out with three characters, and YYYY the year.

Your date would therefore be

"31DEC2016"d

The month can be lowercase as well.

[maliksmom2000]

THAT WORKED!!!! Thank you!