Put date in macro variable

[current_thing]

I have the following code:

%let dt1=%sysfunc(mdy(1,24,2025));
%put %sysfunc(putn(&dt1,date9.));

%put simply reprints, instead of putting the date. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

[PaigeMiller]

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@current_thing wrote:

I have the following code:

%let dt1=%sysfunc(mdy(1,24,2025));
%put %sysfunc(putn(&dt1,date9.));

%put simply reprints, instead of putting the date. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

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I don't understand what you are trying to do. What result do you want? What does "putting the date" mean? What will you do with this macro variable once it is created?

[current_thing]

Hello,

I'm trying to put dt1 in a macro variable in date9. format.

[Tom]

Your first statement sets a macro variable to a particular date value.

Your second statement writes the date value in the macro to the SAS log using the PUTN() function to formatted it using the DATE9. format so that a human might recognize what date it is.

What are you trying to do?

[current_thing]

Yes, but the problem is SAS log simply reprints the %put statement, instead of putting the &dt1 in date9. format.

[Tom]

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@current_thing wrote:

Yes, but the problem is SAS log simply reprints the %put statement, instead of putting the &dt1 in date9. format.

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You are using the same verb to mean many different things which is making you request very hard to understand.

I suspect that what you want is for the macro variable named DT1 to have the string produced by the DATE9. format when passed the date 24JAN2025.

You could ask %SYSFUNC() to do that for you.

%let dt1=%sysfunc(mdy(1,24,2025),date9.);

[current_thing]

I tried it, and I get 'quoted string currently being processed has become more than 262 characters long' in SAS log

[PaigeMiller]

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@current_thing wrote:

I tried it, and I get 'quoted string currently being processed has become more than 262 characters long' in SAS log

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which means that somewhere earlier in your program, you have an unclosed quote 

and you might be better off shutting down SAS, restarting it, and the problem should go away.

[Tom · Accepted solution]

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@current_thing wrote:

I tried it, and I get 'quoted string currently being processed has become more than 262 characters long' in SAS log

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That is because you have unbalanced quotes in some code that you have submitted.  There are things you can try to submit to balance the quotes.  But I usually find it faster to just restart the SAS session and try again.

[current_thing]

restart SAS worked! Thank you Tom

[PaigeMiller]

%let dt1=%sysfunc(mdy(1,24,2025));
%let dt1=%sysfunc(putn(&dt1,date9.));

Which brings me back to my earlier question ... what are you going to do with this macro variable once you have created it properly? There are times when having a macro variable with a value of 24JAN2025 isn't useful.