Date:         Fri, 11 May 2007 16:50:51 -0400
Reply-To:     Peter Crawford <peter.crawford@BLUEYONDER.CO.UK>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Peter Crawford <peter.crawford@BLUEYONDER.CO.UK>
Subject:      Re: Inputting Date/Time Values Stored As Text
Comments: To: Scott Barry <sbarry@SBBWORKS.COM>

On Fri, 11 May 2007 10:25:34 -0700, Scott Barry <sbarry@SBBWORKS.COM>
wrote:

>On May 11, 12:21 pm, "Deborah Testa" <dte...@sevenofninesystems.com>
>wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I am working with a data file that stored date/time values as text like
>> this:
>>
>> 2005-08-01 17:52:33
>>
>> Is there a quick way to get this into a datetime variable without
>> parsing the two pieces?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Deborah
>
>In a DATA step, use the INPUT statement to read up the two fields
>using the appropriate "date" and "time" INFORMAT, and then combine
>them into a "datetime" variable using the DHMS function, substituting
>the "time" variable as the Seconds argument of DHMS, and use "0" for
>the Hour and Minute arguments.
>
>Scott Barry
>SBBWorks, Inc.


Hi Scott

I've been using the SAS9 sashelp.vformat resource to search for correct
informats.

The code
data test ;
  set  sashelp.vformat ;
  where fmttype='I' ;  *just informats;
  where also fmtname ne:'$' ; * and not character informats;

  string = '2005-08-01 17:52:33' ;

  nd = inputn( string,  fmtname, 27 );
  if not _error_ ;

  put fmtname= nd=best32. +1 nd datetime. +1 string=;
  option  errors = 1;
run;

The results show also that some date informats will return a non -missing
value, but only these two achieve the correct timestamp.

extracted from the log

fmtname=ANYDTDTM nd=1438537953  01AUG05:17:52:33 string=2005-08-01 17:52:33
fmtname=YMDDTTM nd=1438537953  01AUG05:17:52:33 string=2005-08-01 17:52:33


Peter C