Character to numeric

[chadwae]

I know this is going to sound so ridiculous, but bear with me, I'm fairly new to SAS and please in answer I am looking for example code. I have a dataset that I am preparing to do a linkage on. The date format is wrong for a variable it is a character defined variable with the numeric string formatted MMDDYYYY. I need to convert it to numeric so that this code below will work for converting the date. How do I convert the variable to numeric so I can use the code below? 

data set;
set set;
DOB=put(DOB,yymmdd8.);
run;

[Tom · Accepted solution]

Your code is for creating a character variable from a date value.  So if your original variable is also character then you just add an INPUT() function call to convert it to a date so the PUT() function will work.

data WANT;
  set HAVE;
  DOB=put(input(DOB,mmddyy8.),yymmddN8.);
run;

Also if you want the result ot look like YYYYMMDD (with no delimiters) then use the yymmddN format.

[chadwae]

Thank you! I almost had it right, but was missing just a small part. This is perfect! 

[Kurt_Bremser]

Please give @Tom credit by marking his answer as the solution.