If I assume that my RDBMS supports ISO8601 for date, time, and datetime literals (and if it doesn't, it should), then it would be convenient if SAS did the same.
Sample Code:
%let date=%sysfunc(date(),e8601da.);
%let time=%sysfunc(time(),e8601tm.);
%let datetime=%sysfunc(datetime(),e8601dt.);
%put &=date;
%put &=time;
%put &=datetime;
My results as of the time of this post:
27 %put &=date;
DATE=2016-08-16
28 %put &=time;
TIME=10:32:06
29 %put &=datetime;
DATETIME=2016-08-16T10:32:06
I only have SQL Server to test against right now, but these values all "work" for SQL Server:
SELECT
CAST('2016-08-16' AS DATE)
,CAST('10:32:06' AS TIME)
,CAST('2016-08-16T10:32:06' AS DATETIME)But not for SAS:
data _null_;
date="&date"d;
time="&time"t;
datetime="&datetime"dt;
put
date=date9.
time=time.
datetime=datetime.
;
run;
If SAS supported the ISO8601 standard, this would make the interchange of date, time, and datetime literals easier when querying data between SAS, RDBMS (implicit pass-through) and RDBMS (explicit pass-through).
