i have that same problem when pulling data from oracle. my solution may be brute force, but is simple:

format new_date mmddyy10.;

new_date=old_date/86400; (i divide the datetime variable by the number of seconds in a day)

Scott D. Miller, M.A.

Medical Informatics Analyst/SAS Programmer Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research CAMCARE Health Education and Research Institute 304 388-9918

"Every good scientist is one part B.F. Skinner and one part P.T. Barnum"

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-----Original Message----- From: Philp, Stephen R. [mailto:Stephen.Philp@CSHS.ORG] Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2000 5:59 PM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: SQL and variable formats

I have some pass-through SQL going against some Oracle tables and am having a hard time trying to figure out how to format a date. The variable in my new table is a sas date with a datetime format (01DEC1998:00:00:00), but when I try to format it to mmddyy10. it has invalid data. Could anyone offer some help? Thanks, Stephen Philp