Converting character field to date field

[Recep]

Hello there,

I'm having trouble to convert the following character field to date field with the SAS code below:

data temp1;
length id $1. date $10.;
infile DATALINES dsd missover;
input id date $;
CARDS;
1, 7/ 3/2011
2, 3/17/2011
;
run;

data temp2;
set temp1;

new_date=input(date, mmddyy10.); format new_date date9.;

run;

The code works for the second record (3/17/2011) but not for the first one (7/ 3/2011). I think the reason for that is the way the day part of the field was recorded in the second record. As you can notice there is a blank space between "/" and "3".

I was wondering if there is another SAS date format to be able to tackle this issue.

Best,

Recep

PS: I use SAS 9.4 TS Level 1M3 on W32 7Pro platform.

[Reeza]

Try:

informat date mmddyy10.;

data temp1;
length id $1. date 8.;
informat date mmddyy10.;
infile DATALINES dsd truncover;
input id date ;
CARDS;
1, 7/ 3/2011
2, 3/17/2011
;
run;

[Recep]

Hi Reza,

Thanks a lot for your response! Unfortunately the code did not work. Plus I was hoping to deal with the problem with a SAS date format as opposed to reading raw data into SAS. The data I have already exist as a SAS file and I would like to manipulate the character date field.

Cheers,

Recep

[Reeza]

new_var = input(variable, mmddyy10.);

---

@Recep wrote:

Hi Reza,

Thanks a lot for your response! Unfortunately the code did not work. Plus I was hoping to deal with the problem with a SAS date format as opposed to reading raw data into SAS. The data I have already exist as a SAS file and I would like to manipulate the character date field.

Cheers,

Recep

---

[novinosrin · Accepted solution]

Hi @Recep I have had that issue before. if you know your char date values are inconsistent of that type, use compress

data temp1;
length id $1. date $10.;
infile DATALINES dsd missover;
input id date $;
CARDS;
1, 7/ 3/2011
2, 3/17/2011
;
run;

 

data temp2;
set temp1;
new_date=input(compress(date), mmddyy10.); format new_date date9.;
run;

[Recep]

Thanks a lot! This is exactly what I needed to...

Recep

[Reeza]

I think you meant to mark @novinosrin post as correct because mine clearly isn't....:(

[Recep]

Thanks a lot for letting me know Reeza! Clearly it's getting late here:)