How to chose earliest date variable from list of date variables?

[sms1891]

Dear SAS community,

I have list of date variables (date_x, date_y, date_z, etc.) for each Record (ID). So for each ID, I need to pick the earliest date variable from the list of all date variables and create a new date variable (date_new) using the earliest date variable for each ID. Any help with SAS code for creating this new date variable is appreciated.

NOTE: I have only one row per ID with all my date variables recorded as separate variables (single row per ID).

Sample Data Set

ID      Date_X     Date_Y     Date_Z    Date_P    Date_Q   Date_R

Thanks in advance!

[sms1891]

Dear SAS community,

I have list of date variables (date_x, date_y, date_z, etc.) for each Record (ID). So for each ID, I need to pick the earliest date variable from the list of all date variables and create a new date variable (date_new) using the earliest date variable for each ID. Any help with SAS code for creating this new date variable is appreciated.

NOTE: I have only one row per ID with all my date variables recorded as separate variables (single row per ID).

Sample Data Set

ID      Date_X     Date_Y     Date_Z    Date_P    Date_Q   Date_R

Thanks in advance!

[sms1891]

Dear SAS community,

I have list of date variables (date_x, date_y, date_z, etc.) for each Record (ID). So for each ID, I need to pick the earliest date variable from the list of all date variables and create a new date variable (date_new) using the earliest date variable for each ID. Any help with SAS code for creating this new date variable is appreciated.

NOTE: I have only one row per ID with all my date variables recorded as separate variables (single row per ID).

Sample Data Set

ID      Date_X     Date_Y     Date_Z    Date_P    Date_Q   Date_R

Thanks in advance!

[Reeza · Accepted solution]

Please do not post the same question multiple times. 

You can use the MIN() function to get the lowest date and it will ignore missing dates.

min_date = min(date_x, date_y, date_z, ... , date_R);