How to Convert Numeric to Date Variables in SAS

This tutorial explains how to convert a numeric variable to a date variable in SAS, along with examples.

Suppose you have a numeric variable that contains dates. You are asked to convert it to SAS date format. It seems to be a easy task but it sometimes becomes a daunting task when you don't know how SAS treats dates. The input data is shown below -

Sample Data

The following program is used to create a sample data.

data temp;
input date;
cards;
20160514
19990505
20131104
20110724
;
run;

Solution

To convert a numeric variable into a date variable in SAS, you can use the following syntax.

data temp2;
set temp;
newdate = input(put(date,8.),yymmdd8.);
format newdate date10.;
proc print noobs;
run;

Output: Converting Numeric to Date Format

Explanation

PUT Function is used to convert the numeric variable to character format.
INPUT Function is used to convert the character variable to sas date format
yymmdd8 informat refers to years followed by month and days having width of total 8
FORMAT function is used to display the SAS date values in a particular SAS date format. If we would not use format function, SAS would display the date in SAS datevalues format. For example, 20588 is a sas datevalue and it is equivalent to '14MAY2016'.

ANYDTDTE : One Informat for All

ANYDTDTE is the relatively latest informat developed by SAS Institute, which alone can handle various date, time or datetime forms. For example date can be like March 17, 2024, 17/03/2024, 03/17/2024, 17MAR2024 17:30:02, 17:30

data temp2;
set temp;
newdate = input(put(date,8.),ANYDTDTE8.);
format newdate date10.;
proc print noobs;
run;

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Post Comment 11 Responses to "How to Convert Numeric to Date Variables in SAS"

UnknownNovember 5, 2018 at 12:42 AM
one question, why i cant change the format yymmdd8. by the format date9. in the input function?
what type of formats i can take or select?
the put(date,8.) variable have not a format date, why i can not take other format date?
UnknownApril 30, 2019 at 5:08 AM
why is date10. format giving the output as 14MAY2016, it is the format date9.
UnknownJuly 1, 2020 at 1:31 AM
How to convert character date "10/13/2019" to date9. Format
sushrutAugust 20, 2020 at 11:43 PM
Can you please explain this using data and set statement. My one date is in $5. And I want to change it to date9. How to do that. Name of the original variable is date_1 and new variable I want to create is date_2
UnknownOctober 20, 2020 at 12:52 AM
Hi,

Here is some data, where I need to fetch yymmdd10. format data (e.g. 2020-06-08).

which includes all Jan-Dec or January to December data with (- or / ) seperates.

data xyz;
date1= "08-June-2020";output;
date1= "31-Oct-2020";output;
date1= "13/August/2020"; output;
date1= "02/Jan/2020" ;output;

run;

Thank you in advance for your help and take care.

Regards

Priya
kateFebruary 22, 2021 at 3:00 AM
Thank you for your help in this topic :)
In your example i use ANYDTDTE. informat for reading data.
My way has pitfalls? Or why did you choose to convert data?
I am new and want to know all secrets :)

data temp;
input date: anydtdte.;
format date yymmdd10.;
cards;
20160514
19990505
20131104
20110724
;
run;
UnknownFebruary 23, 2021 at 3:14 AM
Hi if date is in 2019/un/un this format.how to get 2019 asoutput