macro variable - dynamically increment date month

[ogrigny]

Hi,

I need to automatically calculate a date in macro variable that corresponds to the 2nd of the following month (i.e. if the code runs in November, the desired date will be 02dec2022).

I use this code to get the 2nd of the current month:

%let wanted_day=2;
%put &wanted_day;

%let wanted_date=%sysfunc(MDY(%sysfunc(month(%sysfunc(today()))),%sysevalf(&wanted_day.),%sysfunc(year(%sysfunc(today())))),date9.);
%put &wanted_date;

Can I change it to shift the month or do I need another approach?

Thanks for your help.

[PaigeMiller · Accepted solution]

First, get this to work in a DATA step, much simpler with fewer %SYSFUNC calls (actually 0 %SYSFUNC calls) and fewer parentheses to possibly mismatch. Then you can use CALL SYMPUTX to create the macro variable.

%let wanted_day=2;
data _null_;
    date=today();
    day_of_next_month=intnx('month',date,1,'b')+(&wanted_day-1);
    call symputx('wanted_date',day_of_next_month);
run;
%put &=wanted_date;
%put %sysfunc(putn(&wanted_date,date9.));

[ogrigny]

thanks ! super helpful now I see the logic.