How can I convert the char to num for time because I need to calculate them

[SerenaJJ]

Hi, I have time1: 2022-02-02T13:28

                  time2: 2022-02-02T12:28 

They are both char vaules. Because I need to do the calculation if time1 > = time2 then

  time3= time1 - time2 + 1, so how can I convert them to num value and then do the calculation.

Thank you.

[PaigeMiller]

First, are you sure these are char? You need to find if the output from PROC CONTENTS says these are char. Sometimes you can't simply tell by looking at the values. Can you tell us what PROC CONTENTS says?

[SerenaJJ]

Thank you so much for your reply. Yes, these are char after checking.

[Kurt_Bremser]

Run a DATA step like this:

data want;
set have (rename=(time1=_time1 time2=_time2));
format time1 time2 e8601dt19.;
time1 = input(_time1,e8601dt16.);
time2 = input(_time2,e8601dt16.);
drop _time1 _time2;
run;

Untested, posted from my tablet.

[ballardw]

You should show use exactly what you expect the result of time3= time1 - time2 + 1 would look like expressed as a time on the clock.

The values you show will most easily turn into a SAS datetime value which will have units of seconds.

So the Time3 value using the values shown would end up with a numeric value of 3601 which would represent 1:00:01 or one hour and 1 second.

If you want the number of HOURS you would would use something like

hours = intck('hour',time2,time1);

The INTCK function counts intervals. So could request seconds, hours, and since your values are DATETIME, could ask for day ('DTDAY' as the interval), month ('DTMONTH' as the interval) or a number of other intervals.

https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Working-with-Dates-and-Times-in-SAS-Tutorial/... has a PDF with much information about dates.

[SerenaJJ]

Thank you so much for your reply. I checked the output, there are days for the variable time3.

[Tom]

If you want the difference in DAYS then convert the strings into DATE values. Those are stored in DAYS.

time3=input(time1,yymmdd10.)-input(time2,yymmdd10.)+1;

[SerenaJJ]

Thank you so much!

[SerenaJJ]

Thank you all for your help!!

[SerenaJJ]

Thank you so much!