It worked! Thank you!

On Dec 9, 9:38 am, Tom Abernathy <tom.aberna...@gmail.com> wrote: > Elysia - > The leading apostrophe is telling Excel to treat the value as a CHAR > string even if it looks like a number. > In SAS to convert the string to a data value use the INPUT > function. You can then apply a format to this new numeric variable. > So if you column in Excel is named DATE1 you could generate a new > variable in SAS named SASDATE1 with these statements. > > sasdate1 = input(date1,date11.); > format sasdate1 date11.; > > - Tom > > On Dec 9, 7:57 am, Elysia Larson <elysia.lar...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > I have an excel spreadsheet with three variables: an ID and two > > dates. The dates are stored as 'DD-MMM-YY with the apostrophe at the > > beginning. When I read the file into SAS it does not read in the > > apostrophe, yet reads in the dates as characters. I need to do > > calculations on the dates, but when I try to format them as dates it > > won't let. When I export the data into a new spreadsheet it again > > includes the apostrophe. I tried to do a substr to remove the > > apostrophe, but it just removed the first number of the date. > > > Suggestions on how to convert these variables into dates that SAS will > > recognize? > > > Thank you, > > > Elysia