how to use proc sql max(date) please

[septemberbulb]

Hello,

I am a sas beginner. I try to sorted by application_number and appstatusdate:

and get the following result: for example for one application_number:

1009226470    .................. 19May2016:15:45:07

1009226470    .................. 19May2016:15:45:07

1009226470    .................. 19May2016:15:49:15

1009226470    .................. 19May2016:15:49:15

1009226470    .................. 19May2016:15:49:15

1009226470    .................. 19May2016:15:49:15

I omited some varables in the middle. I am now trying to keep the lastest result. but I can not use If last. because it will only keep 1 obs. for the example above, I try to keep the last date 10May2016:15:49:15, but it has multiple obs. how can I code that? someone told me use date=max(date). I tried but full of errors. Can anyone help one this please? Thanks very much.

[Shmuel]

What code did you try to test ?

[septemberbulb]

I currently use proc sql by application_number, appstatusdate. I don't know use wich statement to keep the lastest datetime.

[ballardw]

What is your desired result? Show the result.

And when discussing this with SAS users that is a datetime value you are showing. Which is very different than a date. In SAS terms one is measured in seconds (time or datetime) and the other days (date). So you can get very unexpected results when applying a rule for a "date" to "datetime" values.

[septemberbulb]

I sorted by the appstatusdate in the datetime format and hope to keep the last datetime which in this example is  four obs. How can keep the last datetime even they have multiples? thx

[LinusH · Accepted solution]

You could use the having max(appstatusdate) = appstatusdate constrict in SQL.

[septemberbulb]

Thank you very much. I have a long way to learn.