mreging two datsets with different date format

[Kyra]

Hi,

1.one of my dataset contains date variable in 03/14/2018 format . There are many more variables too.

proc content shows the below about date -

 SAS Output

Operation_Date

Char

10

$10.

$10.

Operation Date

2. another dataset contains date variable looking like this 11Jun2018

proc contents on this dataset shows below about the date

SAS Output

opdate

Num

8

DATE9.

DATE9.

opdate

I want to merge both dataset by patient id and date, but i do not know how to convert both of the dates to same format to be able to merge. Please help.

[Tom]

There is no problem merging on a date variable that might be using different display formats.  But that is NOT what you have. Instead you have one date variable and one character string. So you will need to convert the character string into a date so you can match the date values in your other dataset.

data one_fixed;
  set one;
  length opdate 8;
  opdate=input(operation_date,mmddyy10.);
  format opdate date9.;
run;
proc sort;
  by patid opdate;
run;

data want;
  merge one_fixed two ;
  by patid opdate;
run;

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

---

@Kyra wrote:

Hi,

1.one of my dataset contains date variable in 03/14/2018 format . There are many more variables too.

proc content shows the below about date -

 SAS Output

Operation_Date

Char

10

$10.

$10.

Operation Date

2. another dataset contains date variable looking like this 11Jun2018

proc contents on this dataset shows below about the date

SAS Output

opdate

Num

8

DATE9.

DATE9.

opdate

I want to merge both dataset by patient id and date, but i do not know how to convert both of the dates to same format to be able to merge. Please help.

---

You have a choice as to which set to modify by adding a variable of the correct type and value range.

I suggest adding a date valued variable using input with Operation_date.

In a data step:

data temp;

   set have;

   opdate = input(operation_date,mmddyy10.);

   format opdate date9.;

run;

and then merge the resulting set using opdate after appropriate sorting.

There are many reasons to ensure date, time or datetime appearing values are actual SAS date, time or datetime valued variables created with the correct informat or functions.

[Kyra]

Thank you very much.