Help in Conversion of Format for Date variables

[samHT]

Hi ,

Please help in converting character variable (Start Date) to date format (mm/dd/yyyy). I have given an example below

Start date $

11/1/2009 0:00:00

4/2/2009 0:00:00

26/1/2009 0:00:00

26/11/2009 0:00:00

26/11/2009 12:00:00 AM

1/11/2009 0:00:00

1/11/2009 12:00:00 AM

Thank you for your help

[art297]

Here is one way:

options datestyle=dmy;

data have;

  informat Start_date $30.;

  input Start_date &;

  cards;

11/1/2009 0:00:00

4/2/2009 0:00:00

26/1/2009 0:00:00

26/11/2009 0:00:00

26/11/2009 12:00:00 AM

1/11/2009 0:00:00

1/11/2009 12:00:00 AM

;

data want (drop Start_date_in);

  set have (rename=(Start_date=Start_date_in));

  format Start_date mmddyy10.;

  Start_date=input(scan(Start_date_in,1,' ','r'), ddmmyy10.);

run;

I would have thought one could do it by inputting the entire datetime string, and using the anydtdtm informat, but it didn't work correctly for the 3rd from the last record.