Convert numeric data to character

[JillChen0131]

I have a bunch of numeric data in this kind of format: 06NOV2019:00:00:00.000. I would like to get 06NOV2019. I tried to use put, but it did not work. Can anyone help with that?

[Reeza · Accepted solution]

If it's numeric with a datetime format you need the DATEPART() function which will extract the date portion alone for you. 

Depending on what you're doing you could also apply a format.

data want;
set have;

date_var  = datepart(datetimeVariable);
format date_var date9.;

run;

Here's a great, but longer and in depth, reference for dates and times in SAS
https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Working-with-Dates-and-Times-in-SAS-Tutorial/...

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@JillChen0131 wrote:

I have a bunch of numeric data in this kind of format: 06NOV2019:00:00:00.000. I would like to get 06NOV2019. I tried to use put, but it did not work. Can anyone help with that?

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[Tom]

So you a variable that contains the number of seconds since 1960 and you are currently use the DATETIME23.3 format to display it in ddMONyyyy:hh:mm:ss.uuu style?

Do you want to change how the value is displayed? 

If you use the DTDATE9. format instead you will have it displayed in the style of ddMONyyyy.

Do you want to convert it from number of seconds into number of days?  You can use the DATEPART() function to make that conversion.  Then you could use the regular DATE9. format instead to display the number of days since 1960 in ddMONyyyy style.

If you just want to create a 9 character variable from your existing datetime values then use the PUT() function with the DTDATE9. format.  You will need to create a new variable to do that since you cannot change the type of a variable.  Although you can rename variables.

Example:

405   data test;
406     have='06NOV2019:00:00:00.000'dt;
407     format have datetime23.3 ;
408     want1 = have;
409     format want1 dtdate9.;
410     want2 = datepart(have);
411     format want2 date9.;
412     want3=want2;
413     format want3 yymmdd10.;
414     want4 = put(have,dtdate9.);
415     put 'Formatted' (_all_) (=/)
416      // 'RAW' / (have -- want3) (=comma14. /)
417     ;
418   run;

Formatted
have=06NOV2019:00:00:00.000
want1=06NOV2019
want2=06NOV2019
want3=2019-11-06
want4=06NOV2019

RAW
have=1,888,617,600
want1=1,888,617,600
want2=21,859
want3=21,859

[JillChen0131]

Thanks for the detailed explaination