sort by quarter

[mpajoh]

I have data set with SAS date variable spanning several years.
I want to create a variable that contains the year and the quarter (e.g 2010Q2), which can then be used to sort by.

Can anyone help?

Masoud

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
Read about the various YYQ formats. For example, a SAS date value for 03/15/2006 could be used to create a character variable called QTRVAL with this code:
[pre]
qtrval = put(date,yyq6.);
[/pre]

And the resulting value would be: 2006Q1

The documentation on the various formats is here:
http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/63026/HTML/default/viewer.htm#/documentation/cdl/...
http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/63026/HTML/default/viewer.htm#/documentation/cdl/...
http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/63026/HTML/default/viewer.htm#/documentation/cdl/...

cynthia

[mpajoh]

Thanks Cynthia.

[Peter_C]

Masoud

what difference do you expect when sortng by (internal) sas date and sorting by quarter?

just interested
Peterc

[sbb]

With a multiple-variable BY statement, the order of observations that have date values throughout a given quarter, may get sorted differently if only considering the "formatted" value sort-sequence, presuming the BY statement has additional variables to the right of the date variable itself.

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

[mpajoh]

I am using the quarter variable to for proc summary's class variable.

Masoud

[data_null__]

You can use the CLASS statement option GROUPINTERNAL to have you cake and eat it too.

[mpajoh]

Thank you all.
I will have to investigate and learn.

Masoud