Simple Macro to Use Today() in Where Function

[akovach]

Hello,

My over-research for something that I believe should be simple has caused me to be terribly confused on how to use today() function in a where statement. 

A column in my data is in the date format DATETIME22.3. I simply want to create subset that excludes any observations with a date greater than today.

All I want is to be able to reference today as a macro &today. as DATETIME22.3.

Thanks,

Autumn

/*this gives me 0 observations because today() appears to be a different format than activity_date_update*/

data latest_activity1;
set latest_activity;
if activity_date_update > today() then delete;
run;

/*this macros I found on my research appear to be used on for character macros*/

data _null_;
   call symputx('dt',put(date(),yymmddn8.);
run;

data latest_activity1;
set latest_activity;
if activity_date_update > &dt. then delete;
run;

[gamotte · Accepted solution]

Hello,

SInce your column is in datetime format you can not compare it directly to a date.

Use the datepart function to extract the date from datetime.

where datepart(activity_date_update)>today();

[akovach]

Thank you very much, my google searches let me down a very different path. 

[ballardw]

Pet peeve mixing up date and datetime values.

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@akovach wrote:

A column in my data is in the date format DATETIME22.3. I simply want to create subset that excludes any observations with a date greater than today.

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In SAS dates and datetimes are measured in different units: date uses days and datetime uses seconds. Proper use of the values involved will help in the long term.