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KrishnaChandra
Calcite | Level 5

How to read date from a txt file?

am trying to read this way.But saw some errors

File4.txt

1 arun joy 12/6/1989

data g;

infile 'H:\SasWorkSpace\File4.txt';

input no @2 name $9.  @12 dob   ddmmyy10.;

run;

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
Scott_Mitchell
Quartz | Level 8

Your informat was incorrect.  Try this.

data g;

infile 'e:\test\File4.txt';

input no @2 name $9.  @12 dob   ddmmyy9.;

format dob date9.;

run;

View solution in original post

4 REPLIES 4
Scott_Mitchell
Quartz | Level 8

Your informat was incorrect.  Try this.

data g;

infile 'e:\test\File4.txt';

input no @2 name $9.  @12 dob   ddmmyy9.;

format dob date9.;

run;

KrishnaChandra
Calcite | Level 5

Got output.Thank you so much for your valuable information.Am a beginner in SAS

Scott_Mitchell
Quartz | Level 8

We all have to start somewhere. We are here to help when we can.

cov_derek
Fluorite | Level 6

Krishna,

I would use a colon (:) modifier on the ddmmyy10. informat instead of changing the informat length.

data g;

infile  'e:\test\File4.txt';

format dob date9.;

run;

The colon basically allows SAS to stop processing as soon as it hits the space in position 10, and translate the string of 9 characters instead of expecting all 10. The problem with the simple solution of changing the format length is that if you have a date longer than that like 14/10/2014, only reading 9 characters will give you incorrect results.

Hope this helps your understanding,

Derek

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