One possibility:   data want; set have; days_between = issue_date - accept_date;   /* may need to reverse this */ run;   proc means data=want; var days_between; run;   Part of the answer depends on what you mean when you say "find" the average.  This program gives you a report with the average. ... View more

When SAS is instructed to perform an operation on a character string, but the value fed to that operation is numeric, SAS has to perform a numeric-to-character conversion.   Most of the time, SAS generates a 12-character-long string.  So if the numeric value coming in is 3.14, SAS converts this to 8 blanks, followed by the characters "3.14".  The conversion process right-hand justifies the original numeric value within the 12-character-long string. ... View more