How to extract a non imputed date value in a variable?

[jayaprakash]

I have a character date variable of format dd-MMM-yyyy in which some of the values are in the format -MMM-yyyy. i want to remove the first "-" only from these values.

I tried using this code 

if length(date1) ne 11 then col1 = substr(date1,2,8);
else col1 = date1;

But I couldn't get the desired result.

The sample date values are as below.

[Patrick · Accepted solution]

@jayaprakash

If you're after tested code then please provide sample data in form of a SAS datastep creating such data and not in form of a screenshot.

Looking at the screenshot: Could it be that you've got leading blanks? If so then below could work:

if length(left(date1)) ne 11 then col1 = substr(left(date1),2,8);

[jayaprakash]

Thanks for your help @Patrick