Convert character date into numeric

[lawilap]

I have a character variable which contains dates like: Mon Jul 24 02:48:17 -0700 2017

How can I extract the usable(date,month,year) date and save it as numeric date. I know how to do it by using SUBSTR function and then concatenating everything together. But I want to know a easier and quick way. I tried using ANYDTDTE informat to read it, but got blank values. Let me know if there is any simpler way to read this date.

[ScottBass · Accepted solution]

I had a quick glance at the SAS informats:

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/64316/HTML/default/viewer.htm#a001239776.htm

My quick glance didn't turn up a suitable informat.  Perhaps I missed it.

This works with your given input.  Not sure if it's any different than your approach?

data test;
   cdate='Mon Jul 24 02:48:17 -0700 2017';
   date=input(
      cats(
         scan(cdate,3,' '),
         scan(cdate,2,' '),
         scan(cdate,-1,' ')
      ),date9.);
   format date date9.;
run;

[lawilap]

This is awesome. Although I was looking for some informat which can read the string without scanning it. Additionally, I changed the code a bit to keep the same variable in dataset.

data test(drop=cdate rename=(date=cdate));
   cdate='Mon Jul 24 02:48:17 -0700 2017';
   date=input(
      cats(
         scan(cdate,3,' '),
         scan(cdate,2,' '),
         scan(cdate,-1,' ')
      ),date9.);
   format date date9.;
run;