Excel date to SAS date format issue

[Kirtid]

Hi,

Im using SAS DI and seem to have a Problem in reading a date value from Excel to SAS. the read Excel date value is in character and when i use the put statement to convert to numeric and Format it with a date9. in SAS DI i get the below error message.

Numeric format F in PUT function requires a numeric argument. ERROR: Numeric format F in PUT function requires a numeric argument.

I see this Problem seem to occur only in proc SQL but not in a datastep. Could you please advise as to how i can make this work in proc SQL. Below code snipet is added for reference. Thanks in advance.

data A;

format c date9.;

b=' 21273';

c=put(strip(b),10.);

run;

proc sql;

select put(strip(b),10.) format = date9.

from A;

quit;

[PaigeMiller]

Use INPUT instead of PUT.

[Kirtid]

Seriously!!.. I spent half my day on this.. Thanks much it worked.