Date:         Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:55:51 -0400
Reply-To:     "Hixon, John" <jhixon@AMGEN.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Hixon, John" <jhixon@AMGEN.COM>
Subject:      SAS DateTime Format that sorts correctly is IS8601dt.
Comments: To: "ya.huang@AMYLIN.COM" <ya.huang@AMYLIN.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <200907301729.n6UHL6l2002555@malibu.cc.uga.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

/*

Ya wrote:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ya Huang" <ya.huang@AMYLIN.COM>
To: <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 11:33
Subject: consistency of sorting a date or time var in num and char


> Hi there,
>
> Obviously sorting a date var as numeric is different from a date9.
> formatted character, since '03JAN2009' is ordered after '03APR2009'.
> But '03JAN2009'DT should have the same order as '01032009'. For time
> var, a time5. formatted string will not have the same order as the
> underline numeric var, since time5. is not zero padded.
>
> I wonder what kind of formatted date, time or datetime var have
> the same order as the underline numeric var.
>
> Thanks
>
> Ya
>

Hi Ya,

The formats you aree looking for are the IS8601 formats.

For DateTime the format is is8601dt.
For date:       is8601da.
For Time:       is8601tm.;

See example below for DateTime.

HTH?

Cheers,

John Hixon
jhixon@amgen.com

*/
data junk;
        do year=1950 to 2025 by 25;
        do month=1 to 12 by 4;
        do day=5 to 30 by 5;
        do hour=1 to 23 by 11;
        do minute=1 to 59 by 29;
        do second=1 to 59 by 29;
                DateTimeC=put(year,z4.)||"-"||put(month,z2.)||"-"||put(day,z2.)||"T"||put(hour,z2.)||":"||put(minute,z2.)||":"||put(second,z2.);
                DateTimeN=input(DateTimeC,is8601dt.);
                DateTimeN_withFormat=DateTimeN;
                output;
        end; end; end; end; end; end;
 run;
proc print data=junk;
format dateTimeN_withFormat is8601dt.;
run;