INPUT Function unexpectedly producing missing values

[PaigeMiller]

Simple problem, I have received a SAS data set where dates are not SAS date values, but are integers of the form 20180621, meaning June 21, 2018. I thought a simple use of the INPUT Function would turn these into SAS date values, but apparently not.

SAS code to reproduce (a small part of) the data set I received:

data a;
    input date;
	cards;
20180621
20180504
;
run;

So, I have received the data, it looks like 20180621, and now I want to use the INPUT function

data b;
	set a;
	date1=input(date,yymmdd8.);
run;

but this produces missing values instead of SAS Date values. Why? And how do I fix it?

[novinosrin · Accepted solution]

Sir, are you missing the first convert to char from num?

data a;
    input date;
	new_date=input(put(date,8.),yymmdd8.);
	format new_Date yymmdd10.;
	cards;
20180621
20180504
;
run;

data a;
input date;
cards;
20180621
20180504
;
run;

data b;
set a;
new_date=input(put(date,8.),yymmdd8.);
format new_Date yymmdd10.;
run;

[Reeza]

INPUT requires a character input, but it would be nice if could be directly converted for sure.
http://documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=lefunctionsref&docsetTarget=p19en16vskd2vhn1vwmxpxnglxxs.htm&...

[PaigeMiller]

Thanks, @novinosrin and @Reeza, I knew it was something simple.

But you don't have to call me "sir" 

[novinosrin]

"But you don't have to call me "sir" "

When I do, I really mean it and value those special few here.  I seriously follow the highly accomplished yet humble personalities like you here and I shamelessly and openly admit to being biased to read their(you in the list) posts only. Thank you!

[Astounding]

If you have control over this part of the process, the program would work if you add a $:

input date $;

[ballardw]

---

@Astounding wrote:

If you have control over this part of the process, the program would work if you add a $:

input date $;

---

@Astounding I suspect Paige actually received a .sas7bdat and wasn't reading an external file from scratch.

[novinosrin]

@Everybody,, Some BOT seems to trigger LIKE for every post if you may have noticed or not. lol. I am not complaining though but so weird

[Reeza]

@novinosrin @Sas_XXXX user name?

[novinosrin]

yes @Reeza  That's right

[Reeza]

Definitely a bot, less than a second after the post. Interesting thing is they're not even showing online. 

[novinosrin]

@ChrisHemedinger or @AnnaBrown  may help fix this ? Thanks @Reeza for immediate attention. Much needed and appreciated from my end.

[ChrisHemedinger]

Hi all - thanks for bringing this to our attention.  I've removed the Likes (regardless of how deserving your posts might have been) and we're looking into the cause.