Checking for Date formats in a character variable

[Abby19]

I have a dataset where the Date Variable column is defined as a character and the dates are recorded in different formats - dd/mm/yyyy and also yyyy/mm/dd formats.

I need to convert them to numeric dates for calculation purposes. Are there any built in SAS functions to check the date formats, so that I can use the right "format" in the input function based on the data?

[Astounding · Accepted solution]

SAS provides relatively simple-to-use tools for this purpose.  Take a look:

https://blogs.sas.com/content/iml/2016/11/11/anydtdte-informat-read-any-date-sas.html