Date:         Fri, 17 Mar 2006 15:52:21 -0500
Reply-To:     Jim Groeneveld <jim2stat@YAHOO.CO.UK>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Jim Groeneveld <jim2stat@YAHOO.CO.UK>
Subject:      Re: What the hell, one more post - Date related
Comments: To: nevin.krishna@GMAIL.COM

Hi Nevin,

I would not do that; then they would become fixed text. Date values should
preferably remain numeric in order to calculate with (number of days and so
on). They are being presented using their date formats as readable dates.
The representation of the missing value can easily be changed (for all
numeric variables though) using OPTIONS MISSING=' ';

Another possibility is a format, e.g.:
PROF FORMAT;
  VALUE _Date
  ._ - .z = ' ' /* all 28 missing numeric values from ._ to .z */
  OTHER = [DATE9.] /* or whatever other format you would like */
  ;
RUN;
This independently of other variables prints a missing date with this
format as a space.

Regards - Jim.
--
Jim Groeneveld, Netherlands
Statistician, SAS consultant
home.hccnet.nl/jim.groeneveld


On Fri, 17 Mar 2006 12:44:50 -0800, nevin.krishna@GMAIL.COM wrote:

>Hi,
>
>This is an issue regarding variable types.. character vs numeric .
>The fact that you see a "period" where the date is missing indicates
>that the
>date field is numeric..To have the missing value appear as a blank you
>simply need to convert the variable to character..hope this helps,
>
>nevin
>
>
>
>The_Grudge wrote:
>> Okay, everything appears to be working okay.
>>
>> However, I have a date field in my data that doesn't always contain a
>> value.
>> In these instances, I want the date to be blank, not a period!!!!!
>>
>> How do I remove the period from blank dates?