Convert a weird string to a date-time format

[DocMartin]

I'm getting raw data files from a source that provides weird (albeit consistent) date-time values as such:

 admit

2020-08-06T02:04:00-04:00

2020-09-03T21:29:00-04:00

It's a YYYY-MM-DD date, followed by "T", then a HH:MM:DD time, followed by "-04:00". What I want to have is a variable called new_admit to appear as DDMMMYYYY:HH:MM:SS with the HH being in military time. I'd also like this to be a numeric variable, such that I could subtract or add it to another variable of the same type.

For example, the two values for variable "admit" above would become "new_admit" 06AUG2020:02:04:00 and 03SEP2020:21:29:00.

Thanks!

Andrew

[novinosrin]

Guru @data_null__  wrote this solution in another thread-

data have;
input datetm $30.;
cards;
2020-08-06T02:04:00-04:00
2020-09-03T21:29:00-04:00
;

data want;
 set have;
 new_date=input(datetm,e8601dt.);
 format new_date datetime20.;
run;

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

That looks like the E8601DT19. informat should work to convert a character value to a datetime

newvar = input(admit,e8601dt19.);

format newvar datetime18.;

The above ignores the timezone as that appears to be your request.

You really wouldn't "add" likely variables of a similar type (datetime) but use the INTNX function to advance/decrease the values.

https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Working-with-Dates-and-Times-in-SAS-Tutorial/... has a PDF with much information about dates.

[PaigeMiller]

The problem with the informat e8601dt. is that it ignores the time zone adjustment which appears in the text string as -04:00

I would think the e8601dz. informat is more appropriate, it adjusts the datetime value by -4 hours and zero minutes, and is probably more correct in this situation.

[ballardw]

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@PaigeMiller wrote:

The problem with the informat e8601dt. is that it ignores the time zone adjustment which appears in the text string as -04:00

I would think the e8601dz. informat is more appropriate, it adjusts the datetime value by -4 hours and zero minutes, and is probably more correct in this situation.

---

Agree in general but the specific request appears to want to discard the timezone component. At least using the E8601DZ  informat  I couldn't get the desired results because my timezone is quite a bit off. (actually getting different day than requested for the second value)

[PaigeMiller]

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@ballardw wrote:

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@PaigeMiller wrote:

The problem with the informat e8601dt. is that it ignores the time zone adjustment which appears in the text string as -04:00

I would think the e8601dz. informat is more appropriate, it adjusts the datetime value by -4 hours and zero minutes, and is probably more correct in this situation.

---

Agree in general but the specific request appears to want to discard the timezone component. At least using the E8601DZ  informat  I couldn't get the desired results because my timezone is quite a bit off. (actually getting different day than requested for the second value)

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My concern is that the OP is unaware of the meaning of -04:00. Anyway, he or she can choose whether to use E8601DT. or E8601DZ.