Difference between quarters

[amanjot_42]

Hi guys,

I am trying to find out the difference between two quarter dates. My data looks like:

Fiscal_quarter  Event_quarter

2007Q1  2008Q3

2007Q2  2008Q3

2007Q3  2008Q3

2007Q4  2008Q3

2008Q1  2008Q3

2008Q2  2008Q3

2008Q3  2008Q3

2008Q4  2008Q3

2009Q1  2008Q3

2009Q2  2008Q3

2009Q3  2008Q3

2009Q4  2008Q3

I want to find out difference between fiscal quarters and event quarter. For instance, when fiscal and event quarter are same, I want 0 as a new variable. Similarly, for one quarter before, it should be -1 and one quarter after the event quarter should be 1, and so on. Please suggest me how can I do this? I tried using this code:

qtr_num = intck('qtr', datafqtr, ad)

but ended up with errors saying invalid numeric data.

Cheers

Amanjot

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

Maxim 3: Know Your Data.

You need numeric data as second and third arguments for the intck() function, and they have to be SAS date values (count of days from 1960-01-01).

Maxim 33: Intelligent Data Makes for Intelligent Programs.

Date values should always be stored as such; keeping them in character variables makes coding harder and must be avoided.

So if your input data looks as you posted, convert it when importing into SAS:

data have;
input Fiscal_quarter :yyq6. Event_quarter :yyq6.;
format Fiscal_quarter :yyq6. Event_quarter yyqn6.;
datalines;
2007Q1  2008Q3
2007Q2  2008Q3
2007Q3  2008Q3
2007Q4  2008Q3
2008Q1  2008Q3
2008Q2  2008Q3
2008Q3  2008Q3
2008Q4  2008Q3
2009Q1  2008Q3
2009Q2  2008Q3
2009Q3  2008Q3
2009Q4  2008Q3
;

data want;
set have;
qtr_num = intck('qtr', Fiscal_quarter, Event_quarter);
run;

and the function will work.

[amanjot_42]

thank you!

it worked well