Failed to change character into date in SAS - date

I imported 5 excel files into SAS and there are some dates formatted as 8/3/1989 originally and formatted into 03Aug1989 (DATE9.) which is what I really want. However, on 1 file the dates failed to converted into DATE9. and it is read as $CHAR10 when I read the log. I tried several ways to reformat it into DATE9 but failed.
I tried to change all informat/format/input into DATE9. instead of $CHAR10 but failed, the results are all empty (.)
I tried DateNew=input (Date,DATE9.); but it didn't work either.
Any comment?
Thanks!

Joe's suggestion in the comment should be plan A. But occasionally built-in SAS format-specifying options don't work and you still end up with a string. If that's where you're at, here's a good fallback:
data test;
format imported_date $char10.;
imported_date = "8/3/1989";
month = scan(imported_date, 1, "/")*1;
day = scan(imported_date, 2, "/")*1;
year = scan(imported_date, 3, "/")*1;
date_datefmt = mdy(month,day,year);
format date_datefmt date9.;
run;

Related

SAS: Get current year in YY format

I want to assign the current year in a YY format to either a macro or data set variable.
I am able to use the automatic macro variables &sysdate or &sysdate9 to get the current date. However, extracting the year in a YY format is proving to be a nightmare. Below are some examples of what I've been trying.
There exists the YEARw. format. But when I try to use it I get errors or weird results. For instance, running
data _null_;
yy = year(input("&sysdate9.", year2.));
put yy=;
run;
produces the error
ERROR 48-59: The informat YEAR was not found or could not be loaded.
If I try to format the variable in the output, I get 1965 instead of the current year. The following
data _null_;
yy = year(input("&sysdate9.", date9.));
put yy= yy year2.;
run;
outputs
yy=2016 65
Please help.
This works to get you the 2-digit year number of the current year:
DATA _NULL_;
YEAR = PUT(TODAY(),YEAR2.);
PUT YEAR;
RUN;
/* Returns: 16 */
To breakdown what I am doing here:
I use TODAY() to get the current date as a DATE type. &SASDATE needs to be converted to a DATE, but also it is the date that the SAS session started. TODAY() is the current date.
PUT allows us to pass in a non-character (numeric/date) value, which is why it is used with TODAY() as opposed to INPUT.
I think it is worth exploring the issues here in more detail.
First, Formats are patterns for converting numeric values to a human readable format. That's what you want to do here: convert a date value to a human readable format, in this case to a year.
Informats, on the other hand, convert human readable information to numeric values. That's not what you're doing here; you have a value already.
Second, put matches with Formats, and input matches with informats, exclusively.
Third, you get close in your last try: but you misuse the year format. Formats are basically value mappings, so they map every possible numeric value in their range (sometimes "all values" is the range, sometimes not) to a display value (string). You need to know what kind of value is expected on the input. YEARw. expects a date value as input, not a year value: meaning input is "number of days from 1/1/1960", mapped to "year". So you cannot take a value you've already mapped to a year value and map it again with that method; it will not make any sense.
Let's look at it:
data _null_;
yy = year(input("&sysdate9.", date9.));
put yy= yy year2.;
run;
yy contains the result of the year function - 2016. Good so far. Now, you need the 2 digit year (16); you can get that through mod function, if you like, or put/substr/input:
data _null_;
yy = input(substr(put(year(input("&sysdate9.", date9.)),4.),3,2),2.);
put yy=;
run;
mod is probably easier though since it's a number. But of course you could've used year:
data _null_;
yy = put(input("&sysdate9.", date9.),year2.);
put yy=;
run;
Now, yy is character, so you could wrap that with input(...,2.) or leave it character depending on your purposes.
Finally - a use note on &sysdate9.. You can easily make this a date without input:
"&sysdate9."d
So:
yy = put("&sysdate9."d,year2.);
That's called a date literal (and "..."dt and "..."t also work for datetime,time). They require things in the standard SAS formats to work properly.
And as pointed out in Nicarus' answer, today() is a bit better than &sysdate9 since it is guaranteed to be today. If you're running this in batch or restart your session daily, this won't matter, but it will if you have a long-running session.
Apply the year function to the date variable
Convert to string
Take last 2 digits
EDIT: change input to PUT
Year = substr(put(year(today()), 4.), 3);

How to format input for SAS's MONYY format

I currently have a dataset with dates in the format "FY15 FEB". In attempting to format this variable for use with SAS's times and dates, I've done the following:
data temp;
set pre_temp;
yr = substr(fiscal,3,2);
month = substr(fiscal,6,length(fiscal));
mmmyy = month||yr;
input mmmyy MONYY5.;
datalines;
run;
So, I have the strings representing the year and corresponding month. However, running this code gives me the error "The informat $MONYY was not found or could not be loaded." Doing some background on this error tells me that it has something to do with passing the informat a value with the wrong type; what should I alter in order to get the correct output?
*Edit: I see on the SAS support page for formats that "MONYYw. expects a SAS date value as input;" given this, how do I go from strings to a different date format before this one?
When you see a $, it means character value. In this case, you're feeding SAS a character value and giving it a numeric format. SAS inserts the $ for you, but there is no such format in existence.
I'm going to ignore the datalines statement, because I'm not sure why it's there (though I do notice there is no set statement). You might have an easier time just changing your program to:
data temp;
yr = substr(fiscal,3,2);
month = substr(fiscal,6,length(fiscal));
pre_mmmyy = strip(month)||strip(yr);
mmmyy=input(pre_mmmyy,MONYY5.);
run;
you can also remove the "length(fiscal))" from the substring function. The 3rd argument to the substring function is optional, and will go to the end of the string by default.

How to correct sas dates after concatenating them

compute calc1 / character length=250 ;
name= 'new date';
calc1 = cats(PUT(_C4_,date9.),' ^n',PUT(_C5_,date9.),' ^n',PUT(_C6_,date9.));
endcomp;
I used the above code, but for some reason som dates are completely off.
This is an example of the incorrect dates in the proc report output. Also the same column will have correct dates.
23AUG2068
21DEC2068
Any suggestions how to correct the dates?
Thanks,
If you have date times use dtdate9. format instead of date9.
calc1 = cats(PUT(_C4_,dtdate9.),' ^n',PUT(_C5_,dtdate9.),' ^n',PUT(_C6_,dtdate9.));
Are you sure _C4_, _C5_ and _C6_ are dates, as opposed to datetimes or times?
Also, I'd try using putn instead of put.

SAS date conversion from text.

Hi I have a date conversion problem in SAS,
I imported an excel file which has the following dates.,
2012-01-09
2011-01-31
2010-06-28
2005-06-10
2012-09-19
2012-09-19
2007-06-12
2012-09-20
2004-11-01
2007-03-27
2008-06-23
2006-04-20
2012-09-20
2010-07-14
after I imported the dates have changed like this
40917
40574
40357
38513
41171
41171
39245
41172
38292
39168
39622
38827
41172
40373
I have used the input function to convert the dates but it gives a strange result.,
the code I used.,
want_date=input(have_date, anydtdte12.);
informat want_date date9.; format have_date date9.;run;
I get very stange and out of the World dates., any idea how can I convert these?
You can encourage SAS to convert the data as date during the import, although this isn't necessarily a panacea.
proc import file=whatever out=whatever dbms=excel replace;
dbdsopts=(dbSasType=( datevar=date ) );
run;
where datevar is your date column name. This tells SAS to expect this to be a date and to try to convert it.
See So Your Data Are in Excel for more information, or the documentation.
From : http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi29/068-29.pdf
Times are counted internally in SAS as seconds since midnight and
date/time combinations are calculated as the number of seconds since
midnight 1 January 1960.
Excel also uses simple numerical values for dates and times
internally. For the date values the difference with the SAS date is
only the anchor point. Excel uses 1 January 1900 as day one.
So add a constant.
EXAMPLES:
SAS_date = Excel_date - 21916;
SAS_time = Excel_time * 86400;
SAS_date_time = (Excel_date_time - 21916) * 86400;
As Justin wrote you need to correct for the different zero date (SAS vs. Excel).
Then you just need to apply a format (if you want to get a date variable to do calculations):
want_date = have_date-21916;
format want_date date9.;
Or convert it to a string:
want_date = put(have_date-21916, date9.);
In either case you can choose the date format you prefer.

Converting SAS Character of form "mo-yr" to a SAS date

I'm trying to convert a SAS string of the form "MO-YR" (e.g. "Jan-04") to a SAS date.
Unfortunately, I don't think there is a date format in SAS that takes that form, so I can't just use an input statement like this date = input(datestring, sasformat).
I've been using this site to find date formats: http://v8doc.sas.com/sashtml/lrcon/zenid-63.htm
Thanks,
Michael
MONYY seems to work for me.
data _null_;
input #1 mydate monyy6.;
put mydate= date9.;
datalines;
Jan-04
Dec-12
;;;;
run;
Puts the correct values to the log.