ERROR: Argument 1 to function PUTN referenced by the %SYSFUNC or %QSYSFUNC macro function is not a n

[StickyRoll]

Hi All,

I am trying to convert a macro variable with the following value

30Nov2019

into

20191130

However, I am getting the error of :

 ERROR: Argument 1 to function PUTN referenced by the %SYSFUNC or %QSYSFUNC macro function is not a number.
 ERROR: Invalid arguments detected in %SYSCALL, %SYSFUNC, or %QSYSFUNC argument list.  Execution of %SYSCALL statement or %SYSFUNC 
        or %QSYSFUNC function reference is terminated.

Below is my script

%let rpt_date=30Nov2021;
%let rpt_date2=%sysfunc(put(&rpt_date.,yymmddn8.));
%put rpt_date2 is &rpt_date2.;

As mentioned above, what I want to achieve is to convert rpt_date into a macro variable (rpt_date2) that shows character value in YYYYMMDD. However, I am getting error.

What could possible be wrong when converting the function that works in a datastep into a macro variable?

[Kurt_Bremser]

%let rpt_date2 = %sysfunc(inputn("&rpt_date."d,date9.),yymmddn8.);

Try this.

[StickyRoll]

I am getting this:

 116        %put rpt_date is what i dont want &rpt_date.;
 SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable RPT_DATE resolves to 31DEC2019
 rpt_date is what i dont want 31DEC2019
 117        %let rpt_date2 = %sysfunc(inputn("&rpt_date."d,date9.),yymmddn8.);
 SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable RPT_DATE resolves to 31DEC2019
 WARNING: Argument 1 to function INPUTN referenced by the %SYSFUNC or %QSYSFUNC macro function is out of range.
 NOTE: Mathematical operations could not be performed during %SYSFUNC function execution. The result of the operations have been set 
       to a missing value.
 118        %put rpt_date2 is what i want &rpt_date2.;
 SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable RPT_DATE2 resolves to .
 rpt_date2 is what i want .

What could possibly be the issue here?

[Kurt_Bremser]

My bad (posted before sufficient amount of caffeine).

No date literal needed:

%let rpt_date2 = %sysfunc(inputn(&rpt_date.,date9.),yymmddn8.);

See this log:

 69         %let rpt_date = 31dec2019;
 70         
 71         %let rpt_date2 = %sysfunc(inputn(&rpt_date.,date9.),yymmddn8.);
 72         
 73         %put &=rpt_date2.;
 RPT_DATE2=20191231

[Tom · Accepted solution]

You cannot use the PUT() function with %SYSFUNC().  It is too confusing to %SYSFUNC() to figure out if the value is numeric or character, so you need to tell %SYSFUNC() what type of values to expect by choosing to use either PUTN() or PUTC().

Since the YYMMDDN format is a NUMBERIC format you need to use the PUTN() function.

But the PUTN() function operates on NUMBERS.  You passed it a string with letters in it.

If you want SAS to consider that string as a date you need to convert it to a date literal by adding quotes and the letter D.

1      %let rpt_date=30Nov2021;
2      %let rpt_date2=%sysfunc(putn("&rpt_date"d,yymmddn8.));
3      %put &=rpt_date &=rpt_date2;
RPT_DATE=30Nov2021 RPT_DATE2=20211130