date prompt

[RubenPloeg]

Is there a way to insert a prompt in your where statement to filter for the date. Below is the code the way I tried it, but it doesn't work.

proc print data=SOMEDATA;

where datepart(error_dt) > '&date';

run;

Where error_dt is a date variable.

[PaigeMiller]

This works

proc print data=somedata;
    where error_dt > '01JAN2020'd;
run;

For future reference, saying "but it doesn't work" and providing no further details usually is not a good thing to do ... you need to provide details (the LOG and/or incorrect outputs) about what happened so we can all see what didn't work.

[RubenPloeg]

I know that inserting a date will work, but it doesn't allow the user to choose a date from a prompt. That was what i was referring to. The error I get when trying to use a prompt is that the where clause operator requires compatible variables. Thus, I'm pretty sure this way I will not be able to work with a prompt for the date. My question was, is there another way?

[PaigeMiller]

As I don't use Enterprise Guide, I can't specifically answer about a prompt that the user has to fill in.

[Tom · Accepted solution]

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@RubenPloeg wrote:

I know that inserting a date will work, but it doesn't allow the user to choose a date from a prompt. That was what i was referring to. The error I get when trying to use a prompt is that the where clause operator requires compatible variables. Thus, I'm pretty sure this way I will not be able to work with a prompt for the date. My question was, is there another way?

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I don't use prompts but I think it will set the macro variable to a string that looks like the date value when printed with the DATE9 format.  So you could use it to make a date literal in your code.  If the macro variable created is named DATE then you want to use 

"&date"d

in your code.  Note that double quotes instead of single is needed to allow the macro process to convert &date into the value of DATE.  The letter D is need to let SAS know that you want it to treat this as a date value and not a string.

[RubenPloeg]

the double qutes helped, thanks!

[Kurt_Bremser]

• to resolve a macro variable in a quoted string, you must use double quotes
• if a variable is already a date (and not a datetime), do NOT use the DATEPART function
• to convert the string from the prompt to a date value, you must add a trailing d immediately following the closing double quote ("&date"d)