Better way to do

[sam369]

Hi All,

I want to create macro variable, Any better way to do.

For example

My macro variable data look like :20oct1997 , but i want to create a new macro variable which look like : 20 OCT 1997

this my approach:

%let dt=20oct1997;

data _null_;

sdt="%upcase(&dt)";

newdt=cat(substr(sdt,1,2),' ',substr(sdt,3,3),' ',substr(sdt,length(sdt)-3,4));

call symputx("newdt",newdt);

run;

%put &newdt;

Thanks

Sam

[Tom · Accepted solution]

Perhaps it is easier to see if you don't think about it as a date?

%let old=123456789;

%let new=%substr(&old,1,2) %substr(&old,3,3) %substr(&old,6);

%put "&new";

"12 345 6789"

%let old=20oct1997;

%let new=%upcase(%substr(&old,1,2) %substr(&old,3,3) %substr(&old,6));

%put "&new";

"20 OCT 1997"

[FriedEgg]

If you are always performing this on dates, then you can use a custom picture format to display the dates the way you want.

proc format;

   picture spaced_dt

      (default=11)

         other = '%0d %b %Y'

      (datatype=date)

      ;

   run;

%let dt = 20oct1997;

%put %sysfunc(putn("&dt."d, spaced_dt.));

[Haikuo]

Sometimes the question becomes why you need to do that? AND how did the date get into the first macro variable? AND will we need Macro variable at all?

[slchen]

%let dt=20oct1997;

%let newdt=%sysfunc(prxchange(s/(\d{2})(\w+)(\d{4})/$1 \U$2 $3/i,-1,&dt));

%put &newdt;

[sam369]

Thank you All,

I agree with you Hai.kuo. while i am practicing  with macro variables with date character variable. i got a question if we need to keep space between the date, how should i achieve it. i tried one approach i am looking for better one.. so i posted on forum. i want to learn different approach , from SAS Guru 's on this forum.

Thanks

Sam