changing dates to yes/no

[StefB]

Hi there,

I have imported some data into SAS and I need to change the setup in one of the variables.  The variable data is called discharge_date and for those that have a double hyphen -- I need to put no, and those you have a date to say yes.  There are more double hyphens then dates.  Would this be an if/else statement?  I am very new to SAS I don't know what I am doing half the time.  It is a character and the informat and format is $9.  Please help I am stumped.

My example:

DISCHARGE_DATE

--

--

--

--

22-Nov-16

22-Nov-16

22-Nov-16

22-Nov-16

22-Nov-16

--

--

--

--

--

3-Sep-15

3-Sep-15

3-Sep-15

3-Sep-15

--

--

--

--

--

[Miracle · Accepted solution]

Hi, yes an if/else will do if you are sure not going to use discharge_date for later analysis. If not, you are better to code them as a date variable. Otherwise the code is a follow:

* set new var to No if discharge_date is a character and strictly coded as double hyphen:
* else set to Yes;
if discharge_date eq "--" then new_var="No"; else new_var="Yes";

[StefB]

Thank you so much! It worked!