Convert a datetime string in the format yyyy-mm-ddT00:mm:ss.fffffffZ to a time to 3 milliseconds?

[BruceWayne]

Hi,

How can I convert a datetime character string variable in the format yyyy-mm-ddThh-mm-ss.fffffffZ to a time variable to 3 or more milliseconds and have that in a readable format e.g. hh:mm:ss:mmm.

An example I have is: 2022-05-16T02:30:00.2159663Z and I want a time variable in some format similar to this for example 02:30:00:216.

I have tried various ISO formats such as E8601DZ but haven't managed to find the solution yet.

Appreciate any help. 

[PaigeMiller · Accepted solution]

Example:

data a;
    datetime=input('2022-05-16T02:30:00.2159663Z',e8601dz28.6);
    want_time=timepart(datetime);
    format want_time time12.3;
run;

Note: e8601dz in this case is an INFORMAT as it is used to read IN values. It is not a format in this case.

[Tom]

To convert a string to a number you need to use and informat, not a format.  Formats convert values to text. Informats convert text to values.

You can use the E8601DZ informat to convert that string into a datetime value.  You can use the TIMEPART() function to extract just the time of day component from the datetime value.

Note that you cannot store that many decimal places in a datetime value.  The number of decimal digits required would be more than SAS can store exactly in the binary floating point format it uses to store numbers.

15   data test;
16     string = '2022-05-16T02:30:00.2159663Z';
17     dt = input(string,E8601DZ30.);
18     time = timepart(dt);
19     format dt datetime29.7 time tod16.7 ;
20     put (_all_) (=/);
21     put dt = 32.8 ;
22   run;


string=2022-05-16T02:30:00.2159663Z
dt=16MAY2022:02:30:00.2159662
time=02:30:00.2159662
dt=1968287400.21596000