SAS data and time

[desireatem]

I have this date time variable as below. It is shown as numeric ( Num 8, datetime16) rather than Character.  I tried to covert it to numeric but it won't work: DTa=input(DT,datetime16.); Any help??

25DEC20:09:00:00

28SEP20:02:02:00

25Dec2020 7:31:00

[Kurt_Bremser]

---

@desireatem wrote:

I have this date time variable as below. It is shown as numeric ( Num 8, datetime16) rather than Character.  I tried to covert it to numeric but it won't work: DTa=input(DT,datetime16.); Any help??

25DEC20:09:00:00

28SEP20:02:02:00

25Dec2020 7:31:00

---

With a type of numeric and this format, it is already a SAS datetime value, so there's no need for any conversion.

[desireatem]

If there is no need for conversion, how do I convert it to SAS DateTime to use numerical computations?

[Kurt_Bremser]

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO CONVERT ANYTHING, AS IT IS ALREADY A SAS DATETIME VALUE !!!!!

[desireatem]

Then how do I convert it to SAS datetime to use for computation?

[ballardw]

---

@desireatem wrote:

I have this date time variable as below. It is shown as numeric ( Num 8, datetime16) rather than Character.  I tried to covert it to numeric but it won't work: DTa=input(DT,datetime16.);

---

If it is shown as numeric why did you think you needed to convert it to numeric???

[desireatem]

I think I have to convert it to numeric because this: 25DEC20:09:00:00 is not numeric despite it state numeric. There are characters in it?

[PaigeMiller]

I think I have to convert it to numeric because this: 25DEC20:09:00:00 is not numeric despite it state numeric. There are characters in it?

When a format (such as datetime16.) is applied to a numeric value, this changes the appearance of your numeric value and it is possible that it now appears to have non-numerics in the value, but only the appearance is changed. The value remains unchanged, and remains numeric.

[Kurt_Bremser]

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@desireatem wrote:

I think I have to convert it to numeric because this: 25DEC20:09:00:00 is not numeric despite it state numeric. There are characters in it?

---

This is the human-readable display of the datetime value as determined by the format.

[ballardw]

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@desireatem wrote:

I think I have to convert it to numeric because this: 25DEC20:09:00:00 is not numeric despite it state numeric. There are characters in it?

---

Format. Format. Controls display. It looks like a datetime because it has a datetime format.

The values don't change just because you have a format. The value type doesn't change because of the format.

Formats are how SAS allows you to create meaningfull-to-human text from a value.

Consider this program. You can copy and run it. The value variable is numeric. The default format is BEST12. But I override the default format to use a custom format in the Proc Tabulate report body.

proc format;
value weirdness
1='Some text'
2='Other text'
3='Off the wall';
run;

data junk;
  input id value;
datalines;
1 1
34 2
;

proc tabulate data=junk;
   class id;
   var value;
   table (id all='Total')*value,
        sum='Sum'*f=weirdness.;
run;

Repeat to yourself until it sinks in: the format is how values are displayed.

Or this one:

Proc freq data=sashelp.class;
   tables name;
   format name $1.;
run;

Which will let me know how many students start with each letter present in the data. I did not change any names. I could assign the format $1. to the variable name in a copy of the Sashelp.Class data set (bad idea to attempt to do such to the original) and you would only see by default 1 letter for each name. But the full names are still in the data set (unless you actually do change them in the copy for some reason, but the format will not do that).

[xxformat_com]

Hi,

Either remove the format permanently in a data step or using proc datasets, or when you print it.

Example : removing the formats of all the variables.

proc print data=mydata;
format _all_;
run;

[desireatem]

Nothing seems to work. I want to transfer the datetime to SAS datetime so that I can use for computation, but since it is numeric when it supposed to be character, I am confused.

[Kurt_Bremser]

Run this:

proc contents data=<your dataset name>;
run;

data _null_;
set <your dataset name>;
if dt ne .
then do;
  put dt 20.3;
  stop;
end;
run;

and post the output and the complete log here.

[desireatem]

Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes
#	Variable	Type	Len	Format	Label
1	MEWSO2_DT	Num	8	DATETIME16.	MEWSO2_DT

NOTE: PROCEDURE CONTENTS used (Total process time):
real time 0.01 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

140
141 data _null_;
142 set gg1;
143 if dt ne .
144 then do;
145 put dt 20.3;
146 stop;
147 end;
148 run;

NOTE: Variable dt is uninitialized.
NOTE: There were 13 observations read from the data set WORK.GG1.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

So your variable is NOT named DT (as you wrote it in your first post, quote:

DTa=input(DT,datetime16.);

), but MEWSO2_DT.

So let's play around with your actual variable:

data test;
set gg1;
date = datepart(MEWSO2_DT);
time = timepart(MEWSO2_DT);
dt_string = put(MEWSO2_DT,e8601dt19.);
new_dt = intnx('dtmonth',MEWSO2_DT,1,"s");
format
  date yymmdd10.
  time time8.
  new_dt e8601dt19.
;
run;

and then look at the newly created variables in dataset TEST.