Variable Creation Help

[G-Scott]

I am so sorry if this is too simple of a question, I have gone over SAS literature and can’t seem to find a good answer.

I have some variables I have transposed in a data set. For some of my observations I have as many as 56 dates, so when I transpose I get 56 new variables.

I am wanting to create a variable based off of the 56 variables created during the transpose process. I want to select the first date in 2020;

So if var1 = 11/19/19
Var2= 1/3/20
Var3= 2/7/20

The new variable would be 1/3/20.

Is this possible?

[MelissaM]

How about this?

data have;

input obs date date11.;

FORMAT DATE DATE9.;

datalines;

1 19/NOV/2019

2 03/JAN/2020

3 07/FEB/2020

;

Option #1

data want;

set have;

where date gt '01jan2020'd;

run;

proc transpose data=want out=want_t;

var date;

run;

Option #2

proc transpose data=have out=want;

where date gt '01jan2020'D;

var date;

format COL1 COL2 COL3 date9.;

run;

[PaigeMiller]

You could use the MIN function in a DATA step

Like this:

data want;
    set have;
    newvariable=min(of var1-var56);
run;

Although I point out that transposing is not necessary in this case, PROC SUMMARY will find minimums from the un-transposed data.

[Astounding]

It doesn't seem like transposing the data was helpful.  But you can still get what you want in this fashion:

data want;
set have;
array dates {56} var1-var56;
do _n_=1 to 56;
   if year(dates{_n_}) = 2020 then earliest = min(earliest, dates{_n_});
end;
run;

This assumes that the date variables really are dates, and not character strings.  Looking at your post, I'm suspicious, but you will have to check that and correct it if necessary.