Result different for same date

[Aleixo]

Hi,

I do not understand why SAS has a result different for same dates. Only format is different, date or datetime.

Why happen this? I need the format datetime21.3

%let tdate = %sysfunc(today(),date9.);
%put &tdate.;

 %let dois_anos_fmt = %sysfunc(intnx(year, %sysfunc(today()), -2, same), date9.);
 %put &dois_anos_fmt.;

result: 

36 GOPTIONS ACCESSIBLE;
37 %let tdate = %sysfunc(today(),date9.);
38 %put &tdate.;
07MAY2018
39
40 %let dois_anos_fmt = %sysfunc(intnx(year, %sysfunc(today()), -2, same), date9.);
41 %put &dois_anos_fmt.;
07MAY2016

%let data_requerida = %sysfunc(today(),datetime21.3);
%put &data_requerida.;

 %let data_dois_anos_menos = %sysfunc(intnx(year, %sysfunc(today()), -2, same), datetime21.3);
 %put &data_dois_anos_menos.;

result:

55 %let data_requerida = %sysfunc(today(),datetime21.3);
56 %put &data_requerida.;
01JAN60:05:55:11.000
57
58 %let data_dois_anos_menos = %sysfunc(intnx(year, %sysfunc(today()), -2, same), datetime21.3);
59 %put &data_dois_anos_menos.;
01JAN60:05:43:01.000

Regards,

Aleixo

[novinosrin]

your code

%let data_requerida = %sysfunc(today(),datetime21.3);
%put &data_requerida.;

Today() returns a date value and not a datetime value that you are trying to format using a datetime format

[Astounding]

Dates and times are different.  You can't substitute one for the other.  It just doesn't work.  It's like saying, "I baked a cake and I used ketchup instead of sugar.  But it didn't come out right.  Why?"  They're just plain different.

To understand what SAS is expecting, you can start here:

https://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrcon/62955/HTML/default/viewer.htm#a002200738.htm

[novinosrin · Accepted solution]

Try this corrected code of your second version

 %let data_requerida = %sysfunc(datetime(), datetime21.3);
 %put &data_requerida.;


%let data_dois_anos_menos = %sysfunc(intnx(dtyear, %sysfunc(datetime()), -2, same), datetime21.3);
 %put &data_dois_anos_menos.;

[Aleixo]

Thank you all. 

Yes the right function is datetime()