SAS : Convert Character Variable to Date

This tutorial explains multiple ways we can convert a character variable (string) to a date variable in SAS.

Suppose you encounter a problem in which you need to convert character variable to SAS date format. It happens most of the times when we upload raw data file in TXT, EXCEL or CSV format to SAS. The problem with dates in character format is you cannot apply any calculations on them.

Create a Sample Dataset

The following SAS code creates a sample SAS dataset for demonstration purpose.

data example;
input dateofbirth $20.;
cards;
05/11/1980
07/05/1990
04/14/1981
;
run;

Convert Character Variable to SAS Date

The INPUT function is used to convert character variable (string) to numeric. With MMDDYY10. format, we assign format of the date.

data out;
set example;
dateofbirth2 = input(strip(dateofbirth),MMDDYY10.);
format dateofbirth2 MMDDYY10.;
run;

Important Note : Please make sure a new variable is created for conversion. If you use the same variable for conversion,the format of the variable would remain character.

Output : Convert Character Variable to Date

How to Convert Character Variable to Different Date Format

As you can see our original dateofbirth variable is in Month-Date-Year format but stored as a character. If we need to convert it to Date-Month-Year format and stored as in SAS date format.

data out;
set example;
dateofbirth2 = input(strip(dateofbirth), MMDDYY10.);
format dateofbirth2 DDMMYY10.;
run;

Make sure you put the original date format in INPUT function and put the desired date format in FORMAT statement. If you put the different date format in INPUT function, it may lead to missing value. For example, 04/14/1981 cannot be converted to DDMMYY10. format directly as SAS reads 14 as month which is not possible.

How to convert character dates of DD-MMM-YYYY or DD/MMM/YYY format?

You can use the format date11. to convert character values in DD-MMM-YYYY format.

DATA temp;
INPUT dt $11.;
dt2 = input(strip(dt),date11.);
FORMAT dt2 date11.;
CARDS;
10/JUN/2024
;
PROC PRINT NOOBS;
RUN;

Convert Multiple Character Variables to Date

Suppose you need to convert multiple character variables to SAS datevalue format. We can create SAS array to convert them.

data example2;
input dateofbirth $10. hire $11.;
cards;
1971-11-21 1991-12-21
1980-05-14 1999-10-20
;
run;

Real SAS Date values are numeric so numeric array is created for them.

data out;
set example2;
array olddates $ dateofbirth hire;
array newdates dt1 dt2;
do i = 1 to dim(olddates);
newdates(i) = input(strip(olddates(i)),yymmdd10.);
end;
drop i;
format dt1-dt2 yymmdd10.;
run;

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About Author:

Deepanshu founded ListenData with a simple objective - Make analytics easy to understand and follow. He has over 10 years of experience in data science. During his tenure, he worked with global clients in various domains like Banking, Insurance, Private Equity, Telecom and HR.

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