Issue extracting year from date

[Satori]

I import the data using proc import:

proc import

datafile='/data/bvd/AcademicsSample.txt'
out=bvd.ac
dbms=dlm
replace;
delimiter = '09'x;
run;

One of the extracted variables is Closing_date (proc contents result below):

# Variable         Type Len Format    Informat

4 Closing_date Num  8    BEST12. BEST32.

From proc print, I see the date as 20081231 for 31 December 2008.

Problem: I cannot extract the year from this date.

I tried using:

1) year=year(Closing_date); result is dots (log NOTE: Invalid argument to function YEAR(20081231) at line 324 column 7.)

2) year=year(datepart(Closing_date)); result is 1960 for all observations (no log NOTE)

3) substr(Closing_date,1,4); result is blanks (log NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by: (Line):(Column). 324:14) 

4) I have tried a bunch of other options that I found online but nothing worked, although I might not have executed these options well

Please help!

[PeterClemmensen · Accepted solution]

This happens because SAS imports Closing_date as a plain number, not a SAS Date. 

You can do this to convert to a SAS Date

data have;
   date = 20081231;

   newdate = input(put(date, 8.), yymmdd8.);
   year  = year(newdate);

   format newdate date9.;
run;

[Satori]

Thanks!