Date:         Fri, 9 Apr 2004 09:06:30 -0400
Reply-To:     "Couch, Timothy" <Timothy.Couch@BANKOFAMERICA.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Couch, Timothy" <Timothy.Couch@BANKOFAMERICA.COM>
Subject:      Question on formatting on mainframe
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

I had a question earlier in the week about a date problem that the group helped me out with, now I have a question on formatting problem.

Here is an example of what I am doing on the mainframe, I am trying to get all zeros if I have a blank date.

data old;  /*  just creating a sample data set here  *
   input date date9.;
cards;
01APR2004
02APR2004
.
04APR2004
05APR2004
;
run;

 PROC FORMAT;
  VALUE MYDATEF      .= '00000000'
                OTHER = [YYMMDDN8.];
 RUN;

DATA _NULL_;
SET OLD;
FILE MDTEST NOPRINT NOTITLES;

  PUT @001 DATE       MYDATEF.
;
RUN;

When I do the put statement this is what I am getting in the output file, I need the real date and not what is below:

[YYMMDDN8.]
[YYMMDDN8.]
00000000
[YYMMDDN8.]
[YYMMDDN8.]

I have tried changing the proc format around a little with the following but that did not work either.

other = ?<YYMMDDN8.>?
and
other = <?YYMMDDN8.?>
and
other = ?<YYMMDDN8.?>

Any ideas?

thanks
Tim
Bank of America