@IGK22 wrote: Well, there is no other values except date9. format and all others are UUUU*random numbers*. Unfortunately, I can't suppress errors, and if I do input function, I get dots(.) all over the variable The question mark will suppress the errors in the log.  A single period is the default way that SAS will print a missing numeric value.   Are you saying that NONE of the values are getting converted to valid dates?  Are you sure that the text in the character variable is actual in a format that is valid for the DATE informat?  Do the values have hyphens or other punctuation between the day month and year parts?  Make the width you use on the informat is long enough for the longest valid date string.  Does it have leading spaces?  Does it contain tabs or other invisible characters?   Example:  97 data test; 98 input char $32.; 99 num1=input(char,date9.); 100 num2=input(char,??date9.); 101 format num1 num2 date9.; 102 cards; NOTE: Invalid argument to function INPUT at line 99 column 8. RULE: ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+----9----+----0 103 UUU123 char=UUU123 num1=. num2=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=1 NOTE: Mathematical operations could not be performed at the following places. The results of the operations have been set to missing values. Each place is given by: (Number of times) at (Line):(Column). 1 at 99:8 NOTE: The data set WORK.TEST has 3 observations and 3 variables. Notice how the error message on occurs for the INPUT() function that did not have the ?? before the format specification. Also notice that reading only 9 characters from the first date string made it assume that the 20 represented the year within the century. Obs char num1 num2 1 UUU123 . . 2 01-JAN-2018 01JAN1920 01JAN1920 3 01jan18 01JAN2018 01JAN2018 ... View more