Time Stamp conversion from character to numeric

[OzanKirtac]

Hi,

I am trying to transform character imported timestamp variable to numeric timestamp variable so that I can change and play around with the variable. When I try to use input function, I keep getting errors. 

The original timestap looks like the one below and I want to convert it to a format .

I run this code

data Z11; set Z10;
datadate = input(TIMESTAMP_UTC,8.);
format datadate YYMMDDN8.;
run;

then I keep getting errors:NOTE: Invalid argument to function INPUT at line 1015 column 12

All help is appreciated

[maguiremq]

Try this. I specified an INFORMAT to read in the date as numeric, and then I converted it to your desired FORMAT (yymmddn8).

data have;
input timestamp_utc $23.;
datalines;
2010-01-01 03:30:53.85
;
run;

data want;
	set have;
		datadate_nofmt = input(timestamp_utc, yymmdd10.);
		datadate = put(input(timestamp_utc, yymmdd10.), yymmddn8.);
run;

timestamp_utc 	                datadate_nofmt 	datadate
2010-01-01 03:30:53.85 	        18263 	        20100101

[OzanKirtac]

thank you for reply. 

So will I have to inclued all timestamps in datalines? I have 53000 timestamps. Will I include all of them in the datalines?

[maguiremq · Accepted solution]

No, you don't have to do the DATALINES statement. That was done for me to reproduce your issue and test whether my solution works. Just run the second chunk of code I provided:

data want;
	set have;
		datadate_nofmt = input(timestamp_utc, yymmdd10.);
		datadate = put(input(timestamp_utc, yymmdd10.), yymmddn8.);
run;

 You don't even have to do the 'datadate_nofmt' part. That was done just to show you what's going on.

[OzanKirtac]

thank you! cheers!