coverting date into a char (or int) with the same look

[akosyan]

Hi All,

Can you please help me with the following formatting change ?

I have a date column (format yynnm4.    for example 1803 representing 2018 March)

I want to create the exact same column but as text ( for example text 1803, or as an integer 1803).

Thanks,

[ballardw]

Depending on what you mean by "exact same column".

A new variable with the character value can be done with:

data want;
   set have;
   datechar = put(date,yymmn4.);
run;

I believe your description confused the M and N in the format.

If you mean to change the existing variable you can't directly. Once a variable is created the type is fixed. You would have to rename your existing variable and create a variable with the same name using similar code:

data want;
   set have (rename=(date=olddate);
   date = put(olddate,yynnm4.);
   drop olddate;
run;

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

length crdate $4;
crdate = put(numdate,yymmn4.);

you just use the display format in a put() function.

[Patrick]

Why? It's much better to store dates as SAS Date values and not as strings.

You can use a put function with a format to write a numerical value as a string. You then assign the result of this to a new variable of type character.

date_string_var=put(sasdate_var, yymmn4.);

[akosyan]

Thanks all, this worked !!!