Date to Datetime

[mk131190]

I need to turn all of my date variables to datetime in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS is there a quick way to do this?

[RW9]

You would need to specify the missing components, for example:

data want;
  set have;
  new_variable=dhms(your_date,0,0,0);
  format new_variable datetime.;
run;

[mk131190]

Are there any other datetime options? This gives DDMMMYY:HH:MM:SS which isnt the one I needed.

[jklaverstijn]

There are plenty: Formats by Category

And if none fit your bill you can roll your own. Look at PROC FORMAT, specifically te PICTURE statement with the DATATYPE=DATETIME directive. It knows no bounds.

Hope this helps,

- Jan.

[jklaverstijn]

And I almost forgot: a variable is not in a specific format. It can be a numeric variable with the presentation lossely coupled. You can present your data in any format without actually modyfying the values in the table. data and presentation are separate unless you choose to store the dates as character.

- Jan.

[RW9 · Accepted solution]

data want;
  set have;
  new_variable=dhms(your_date,0,0,0);
  format new_variable datetime.;         <--- Modify this format assigning
run;

[mk131190]

That's perfect thanks both.