converting date of birth to required spec

[GreggB]

The date I have for DOB in a file I imported looks like this:

12/11/2000  (my proc contents says that the FORMAT and INFORMAT is numeric).

I need to convert DOB values to that 12/11/2000 becomes 12112000.

When I use the code below and run a PROC FREQ the data displays as numeric values in the output.

data student2 (rename=(dob2=dob));
*ASSIGN LENGTH OF REQUIRED VARS*;
length last_name $35 first_name $20 middle_name $1 ;
set student;
*DOB*;
dob2=COMPRESS(dob,"/");
drop dob;

run;

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

If the current format is MMDDYY10 as it appears you may only need to change the FORMAT to MMDDYYN8.

You could do this as need for display in a procedure or in a data step to permanently modify the variable:

Format DOB mmddyyn8.;