@eroolpal wrote:
yes I do have a file. I am extracting it as a string and then will want to change this to a date format and then need to change it to 30Sep2021
If you already have a character variable, let's call it STRING, then use the INPUT() function with an appropriate informat specification to convert that string into a number that SAS can treat as a date. Then attach a date type format to it so it prints in a style that humans will recognize as a date.
So if your existing dataset is named HAVE here is how you could make a new dataset and a new variable.
data want;
set have;
date = input(string,mmddyy11.);
format date date9.;
run;
Note that you cannot change the type of an existing variable. So it you want the new variable to use the name that is already being used by the character variable then add a RENAME (and possibly and DROP) statement. So if the existing variable named DATE and you want to use DATE as the name of the new numeric variable you might use this data step.
data want;
set have;
date_num = input(date,mmddyy11.);
format date_num date9.;
rename date_num=date date=date_string ;
run;
To fix the way you are creating the original dataset so that the variable is defined as a date to begin with you need to explain what you mean by the words "extract" and "file". If you have a text file and you want to create a SAS dataset from it then use a data step with an INFILE statement and appropriate INPUT statements. If you read the string from the text file use the MMDDYY informat to start with then the variable you create will have date values already.
Note that in addition to being precise about what you mean by "extract" and "file" you should be precise about what you mean by "format". The word FORMAT in SAS has a specific meaning that is different than they way you are using it. SAS has only two types of variables, floating point numbers and fixed length character strings. SAS stores DATE, TIME and DATETIME values as numbers. So a variable does not have a "date format". Instead it contains date values. You could attach a date type format to the variable so that the values display in a way that humans will recognize as a date.
In SAS a FORMAT is instructions for how to display values as text. A numeric format (like the DATE format) displays numbers as text. A character format displays character values as text. SAS also has something called in an INFORMAT. An informat converts text into values. A numeric informat converts the text into a number (like the MMDDYY informat). A character informat converts text into character values.
