how to obtain previous date

[sasphd]

hello

I want to obtain the previous date. my date format is YYMMN6.

for example I have 201501, I want that the program give the previous month 201412

thanks

[PaigeMiller · Accepted solution]

data want;
    set have;
    previous_date=intnx('month',date,-1,'b');
    format previous_date yymmn6.;
run;

All month arithmetic should be done with INTNX function (or in some situations the INTCK function). SAS has done the hard work to do month arithmetic, so you don't have to.