Convert character values to date

[lovecoding]

AETRT = 22459 
How I can it compare with this ?

AESTDTC = 2021-07-05

[MayurJadhav]

@lovecoding 

Your question is not clear. Though I'd recommend to look at this SAS Date format. 

Here is how you can check formatted date values:

data test;
format AETRT_Formatted yymmdd10.;
AETRT = 22459 ;
AETRT_Formatted = AETRT;
run;

You can also use PUT function if this is something you want to achieve:

AETRT_Formatted=put(AETRT,yymmdd10.);

[PaigeMiller]

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@lovecoding wrote:

AETRT = 22459 
How I can it compare with this ?

AESTDTC = 2021-07-05

---

Is AETRT numeric or character? Is AESTDTC really a character variable, or is it numeric with a format? Please check PROC CONTENTS and determine if each of these variables is numeric or character. Let us know.

[JosvanderVelden]

To understand more about dates and times in SAS you can read:

• https://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings15/1334-2015.pdf
• https://communities.sas.com/t5/Ask-the-Expert/Tips-and-Tricks-for-Working-with-Dates-and-Times-in-SA...
• https://documentation.sas.com/doc/en/lrcon/9.4/p1wj0wt2ebe2a0n1lv4lem9hdc0v.htm

For a way to compare see the following code:

data _null_;
   date1 = 22459;
   date2 = mdy(5, 7, 2021);
   days_between_1_2 = intck('day', date1, date2);
   days_between_2_1 = intck('day', date2, date1);
   formatted_date1 = date1;
   formatted_date2 = date2;
   format formatted_date1 formatted_date2 date9.;
   put date1= '|'  formatted_date1= / 
       date2= '|'  formatted_date2= / 
       'days_between date1 and date2 is ' days_between_1_2 /
       'days_between date2 and date1 is ' days_between_2_1;
run;

[Tom]

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@lovecoding wrote:

AETRT = 22459 
How I can it compare with this ?

AESTDTC = 2021-07-05

---

Assuming that the variable whose name ends with the letter C is a CHARACTER variable you can convert its contents to a date value using the INPUT() function.  Looks like the string is in a style that the YYMMDD informat can read.

To have the numeric value print in the same style attach the YYMMDD format to the it.

data want;
  set have;
  difference = aetrt - input(aestdtc,yymmdd10.);
  format aetrt yymmdd10.;
run;

 Result

Obs         AETRT     AESTDTC      difference

 1     2021-06-28    2021-07-05        -7