Paper 4397-2020

The Essentials of SAS® Dates and Times

Derek Morgan, PAREXEL International, Billerica, MA

ABSTRACT
The first thing you need to know is that SAS® software stores dates and times as numbers.
However, this is not the only thing you need to know. This paper is designed to give you a
solid base for working with dates and times in SAS. It introduces you to functions and
features that enable you to manipulate your dates and times with surprising flexibility. This
paper shows you some of the possible pitfalls with dates (and times and datetimes) in your
SAS code and how to avoid them. We show you how SAS handles dates and times through
examples, including the ISO 8601 formats and informats, and how to use dates and times in
TITLE and FOOTNOTE statements. The paper closes with a brief discussion of Excel
conversions.

INTRODUCTION
Dates are counted in days from a zero point of January 1, 1960. Times are counted in
seconds from a zero point of midnight of the current day, and datetimes are counted in
seconds since midnight, January 1, 1960. Each day that passes increments the day counter
by one, and each second that passes increments the time and datetime counters by one.
This makes it easy to calculate durations in days and seconds via simple subtraction. Then it
is a matter of dividing by the appropriate value to get the duration in regular time intervals
(such as hours or minutes,) or using a SAS function to obtain durations in irregularly spaced
time intervals (such as months or years.)

HOW DO WE TELL SAS ABOUT A SPECIFIC DATE?

Unfortunately, most of our references to dates and times do not use the lowest common
denominator of days and seconds, respectively, and they certainly don't use January 1,
1960, and midnight as their central reference points. That is where the first problem comes
up: how to get SAS to speak about dates and times the way we do. How do you tell SAS
that the date is January 14, 1967? Sample Code 1 may seem instinctive, but it won't get
you very far:
date = 'January 14, 1967';

Sample Code 1: This is NOT Correct.

Depending on the context, if you try Sample Code 1, you will get an error message telling
you that you tried to put characters into a numeric value, or you will get a character
variable with the words, "January 14, 1967" stored in it. It may look okay, but if you try to
do a calculation using that character variable, you will get a missing value, as Example 1
shows:

1
 DATA _NULL_;
date1 = 'January 14, 1967';
date2 = 'September 4, 2014';
days_in_between = date2 - date1;
PUT days_in_between = ;
RUN;

These are the NOTEs you would get in the SAS log.
NOTE: Character values have been converted to numeric values at the
places given by: (Line):(Column). 19 4:27
NOTE: Invalid numeric data, date2='September 4, 2014' , at line 4
column 19.
NOTE: Invalid numeric data, date1='January 14, 1967' , at line 4 column
27.
days_in_between = •  (the dreaded missing value dot)

Example 1: What Happens When You Try to Use a Character Value as a Date
In order to tell SAS about a specific date, you use a SAS "date literal." The date literals for
the two dates above are "14JAN1967"d and "04SEP2014"d. The letter "d" at the end tells
SAS that this is a date, not a string of characters. When we make the change in the code,
we get the result in Example 2:
DATA _NULL_;
date1 = "14jan1967"d;
date2 = "04sep2014"d;
days_in_between = date2 - date1;
PUT days_in_between = ;
RUN;

days_in_between=17400

Example 2: Using SAS Date Literals

No part of the date literal is case-sensitive, that is, you can use all capital letters, all lower-
case, or mixed case for the date inside the quotes and the 'd' can be upper or lower-case.
You may use single or double quotes to enclose the literal string, but if you use double
quotes, you will be subject to macro variable resolution, which means that an ampersand
(&) may cause unexpected results. Time and datetime literals are expressed in a similar
fashion; however, instead of the letter "d", they are followed by the letter "t" for time, or
the letters "dt" for datetimes. Time literals are expressed with a twenty-four hour clock in
the form "05:00:00"t, and datetime literals are expressed as "04sep2017:05:00:00"dt.

SAVING SPACE BY SHRINKING VARIABLE LENGTHS

While SAS has a default length of eight for numeric variables, you can save space by
defining smaller lengths for dates, times, and datetimes. Dates can be stored in a length of
four. Clock times can be stored in a length of four, unless you need decimal fractions of
seconds; then you would use eight for maximum precision. However, it is important to
understand that in SAS, time is not restricted to the twenty-four hour clock. If you are
working with elapsed times greater than twenty-four hours, you would be better off using
the maximum length of 8. Datetimes can safely be stored in a length of six, unless you need
decimal fractions of seconds, in which case you would again use eight. Why can't you go
any lower? Example 3 demonstrates:

2
 DATA date_length;
LENGTH len3 3 len4 4 len5 5;
len3 = "02AUG2006"d + 2;
len4 = len3;
len5 = len3;
FORMAT len3 len4 len5 mmddyy10.;
RUN;

Now let's look at our data set:

Example 3: Shrinking Date Variables Too Much

You can see that the value of len3 is wrong. Some precision was lost when the numeric date
value was written to the dataset. Do not have this happen to you.

HISTORICAL DATES
SAS can go all the way back to January 1, 1582, so you will likely be able to work with
historical dates. However, historical dates have the potential to produce incorrect values in
SAS. You may not get a missing value, but make sure you check your century. The
YEARCUTOFF option gives you the capability to define a 100-year range for two-digit year
values. The default value for the YEARCUTOFF option in version 9.4 of SAS is 1926, giving
you a range of 1926-2025. Let's demonstrate with Example 4, using date literals:
OPTIONS YEARCUTOFF=1926; /* SAS System default */
DATA yearcutoff1;
yearcutoff = "SAS System Default: 1926";
date1 = "08AUG06"d;
date2 = "15JUN48"d;
date3 = "04jan69"d;
RUN;

OPTIONS YEARCUTOFF=1840;
DATA yearcutoff2;
yearcutoff = "1840";
date1 = "08AUG06"d;
date2 = "15JUN48"d;
date3 = "04jan69"d;
RUN;

YEARCUTOFF date1 date1 Value date2 date2 Value date3 date3 Value
value literal in SAS literal in SAS literal in SAS
1926 08AUG06 08/08/2006 15JUN48 06/15/1948 04JAN69 01/04/1969
1840 08AUG06 08/08/1906 15JUN48 06/15/1848 04JAN69 01/04/1869
Example 4: Effects of the YEARCUTOFF= Option on Identical Date Strings
As you can see, identical date literals can give you completely different results based on the
value of this option. Any two-digit year that SAS has to translate, whether it is from a date
literal as shown in the above example, an ASCII file being processed with the INPUT
statement and an informat, or even the INPUT() function and an informat will be affected by
this option. However, dates that are already stored as SAS dates are NOT affected by this

3
option. SAS dates are simply stored as the number of days from January 1, 1960, and so
the two-digit vs. four-digit year doesn't matter. The lesson here is to check your dates
before and after processing.

FORMATS AND TRANSLATING SAS DATES

Since SAS keeps track of dates and times (and datetimes) as numbers relative to some
fixed point in time, how do we get SAS to show us its dates in ways we understand? Also,
how can we communicate our dates to SAS? Formats are the way that SAS can translate
what it understands into something that we can understand, while informats do the reverse.
So how can this built-in translation fail?
First, you need to make sure you are using the correct format or informat for your data, and
the type of data you are working with. Do not try to use a date format to print out a
datetime value, or use a time format to print out a date. SAS stores dates, times, and
datetimes as numbers, but it does not store any context information with it. Unfortunately,
this means that if it is not clear what the value represents to you, SAS will not be of much
help directly. (You can make an educated guess based on the maximum values and ranges
of the variables involved, but that method is not foolproof, and it would be data-
dependent.) Example 5, uses a date value representing August 8, 2014, a time value of
11:43 AM, and a datetime value of 3:52:07 PM on January 25, 2015, and displays them
using several formats.
Date Formats Time Format Datetime Formats
Using Using Using Using Using
Variable
Value in SAS MMDDYY10. MONYY7. TIMEAMPM11. DTMONYY7. DATETIME19.
Type
format format format format format
Date 19943 08/08/2014 AUG2014 5:32:23 AM JAN1960 01JAN1960:05:32:23
Time 42180 06/26/2075 JUN2075 11:43:00 AM JAN1960 01JAN1960:11:43:00
Datetime 1737820327 ********** ******* 3:52:07 PM JAN2015 25JAN2015:15:52:07

Example 5: The Importance of Context When Using Formats with SAS Date and
Time Values
Notice that the datetime value gives you several asterisks when you try to format it as a
date. The date represented by the value 1,737,820,327 is so far in the future that it cannot
be represented by a four-digit year, but that’s the only blatant indication that something's
not quite right. Why is there a discrepancy on the others? When you try to translate a date
value with a time format, you are translating days since January 1, 1960 using something
designed to translate seconds since midnight. 19,943 seconds after midnight is 5:32:23 in
the morning. If you translate 19,943 as seconds after midnight of January 1, 1960, which is
the definition of a datetime, you get 5:32:23 AM on January 1, 1960. Similarly, if you
translate 42,180 as days since January 1, 1960, you get June 26, 2075. Finally, note the
cell in italics. There is absolutely nothing to indicate anything is wrong, but it is incorrect.
Why do we get a normal-looking time? The TIMEAMPM. format gives times from 12:00 AM
to 11:59 PM, so any value greater than 86,400 (the number of seconds in a day) just cycles
into the next day. Therefore, you are getting the result of the calculation
MOD(1737820327,86400), which is 57,127, and translates into a time of 3:52:07 PM using
the time scale of seconds after midnight. While it may seem correct, you are still using the
wrong units: seconds since midnight of the current day for a value that is using seconds
since midnight, January 1, 1960.

NEED A FORMAT FOR YOUR DATE?

Although there are many formats built into SAS, you may find yourself in a position where
you cannot find a format that displays your date, time, or datetime the way you want. Don't

4
panic. You can create and use a custom format to show off your dates. There are two ways
to do this and they both require using the FORMAT procedure. The first way uses the VALUE
statement. You define a range for the values using date, time, or datetime constants, and
then you can tell SAS what to print out instead of the date. Sample Code 2 creates a format
to display whether a contract is scheduled for arbitration or renegotiation
1 PROC FORMAT;
2 VALUE contrct
3 LOW-'15nov2013'd="EXPIRED"
4 '16NOV2013'd-'15nov2014'd="RENEGOTIATION"
5 '16NOV2014'd - '15nov2016'd = "ARBITRATION"
6 '16nov2016'd-high=[MONYY7.]; /* INSTRUCTS SAS TO USE THE MONYY7.
FORMAT FOR VALUES BEYOND NOVEMBER
16, 2016 */
7 RUN;
Sample Code 2: Creating a Format to Display Text Instead of a Date
This is a look at a few records of the raw data:
Contract Number Expiration Date
5829014 11/06/2013
9330471 09/21/2015
6051271 04/11/2015
Instead of printing the date for the variable EXP_DATE, our format classifies the date values
and translates them into categorical text. We are going to reformat the display of the raw
date as well. Using aliases in the COLUMNS statement below, Example 6 shows how to turn
these two columns from the dataset we create into an ordered list by date using differing
formats:
PROC REPORT DATA=contracts NOWD;
COLUMNS exp_date_raw contract_num exp_date_raw=exp_date
exp_date_raw=exp_date_disp;
DEFINE exp_date_raw / NOPRINT ORDER;
DEFINE contract_num / "Contract Number";
DEFINE exp_date / FORMAT=contrct. "Negotiation Status at End-of-Term";
DEFINE exp_date_disp / FORMAT=worddate. "Expiration Date";
RUN;

Contract Negotiation Status at

Number End-of-Term Expiration Date
5829014 EXPIRED November 6, 2013
2301911 RENEGOTIATION January 23, 2014
1540956 ARBITRATION December 1, 2014
6051271 ARBITRATION April 11, 2015
9330471 ARBITRATION September 21, 2015
6894300 ARBITRATION August 21, 2016
7465502 NOV2016 November 18, 2016
Example 6: Custom Format Using the VALUE Statement

5
So where can you go wrong here? Several places, actually. Let's examine Sample Code 2:
1 PROC FORMAT;
2 VALUE contrct
3 LOW-'15nov2013'd="EXPIRED"
4 '16NOV2013'd-'15nov2014'd="RENEGOTIATION"
5 '16NOV2014'd - '15nov2016'd = "ARBITRATION"
6 '16nov2016'd-high=[MONYY7.]; /* INSTRUCTS SAS TO USE THE MONYY7.
FORMAT FOR VALUES BEYOND NOVEMBER
16, 2016 */
7 RUN;

If you forget the "d" to use a date constant, you will get an error in lines 3-6. Line 3 uses
the special value "LOW". Without it, any date before November 16, 2013, would display as
the actual SAS numeric value. Similarly, line 6 accounts for dates in the future by using the
special value "HIGH". We tell SAS to use one of its own date formats if the date is after
November 16, 2016 by enclosing a format name in brackets after the equal sign. Without
that, there would be no format associated with SAS date values after November 16, and
only the number of days since January 1, 1960 would be displayed.

PRETTY AS A PICTURE
The second way to create your own format for your date, time, or datetime is with a picture
format. Picture formats allow you to describe what you want your date to look like. Special
formatting directives allow you to represent dates, times and datetime values, and are
case-sensitive. You will also need to use the DATATYPE= option in your PICTURE
statement. DATATYPE is DATE, TIME, or DATETIME to indicate the type of value you are
formatting. Table 1 lists the directives:

%a Locale's abbreviated weekday name. %M Minute as a decimal number (0-59),

%A Locale's full weekday name. with no leading zero. Put a zero
between the percent sign and the "M"
%b Locale's abbreviated month name.
to have a leading zero in the display.
%B Locale's full month name.
%p Either AM or PM.
%d Day of the month as a decimal number
%S Second as a decimal number (0-59),
(1-31), with no leading zero. Put a zero
with no leading zero. Put a zero
between the percent sign and the "d" to
between the percent sign and the "S" to
have a leading zero in the display.
have a leading zero in the display.
%H Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal %U Week number of the year (Sunday as
number (0-23), with no leading zero. Put the first day of the week) as a decimal
a zero between the percent sign and the number (0-53), with no leading zero.
"H" to have a leading zero in the display. Put a zero between the percent sign
and the "U" to have a leading zero in
%I Hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal
the display.
number (1-12), with no leading zero. Put
a zero between the percent sign and the %w Weekday as a decimal number, where 1
"I" to have a leading zero in the display. is Sunday, and Saturday is 7.
%y Year without century as a decimal
%j Day of the year as a decimal number (1- number (0-99), with no leading zero.
366), with no leading zero. Put a zero Put a zero between the percent sign
between the percent sign and the "j" to and the "y" to have a leading zero in
have a leading zero in the display. the display.
%m Month as a decimal number (1-12), with %Y Year with century as a decimal number
no leading zero. Put a zero between the (four-digit year).
percent sign and the "m" to have a %% The percent character (%).
leading zero in the display.

Table 1: SAS Date Directives for Use with PICTURE Formats

6
Example 7 shows how to use date directives to create an enhanced date display with the
day of the year, starting with the code:
1. PROC FORMAT;
2. PICTURE xdate
3. . - .z = "No Date Given"
4. LOW - HIGH = '%B %d, %Y is day %j of %Y' (DATATYPE=DATE); 
5. RUN;

Let's look at the output for several pseudo-random dates:

Date Formatted Using
SAS Custom Format XDATE.
Date Date Formatted Date Formatted Using Custom WITHOUT a Length
Value Using WORDDATE. Format XDATE40. Specification
. . No Date Given No Date Given
19703 December 11, 2013 December 11, 2013 is day 345 of 2013 December 11, 2013 is day
19724 January 1, 2014 January 1, 2014 is day 1 of 2014 January 1, 2014 is day 1
19765 February 11, 2014 February 11, 2014 is day 42 of 2014 February 11, 2014 is day
19849 May 6, 2014 May 6, 2014 is day 126 of 2014 May 6, 2014 is day 126 of
19860 May 17, 2014 May 17, 2014 is day 137 of 2014 May 17, 2014 is day 137 o
19920 July 16, 2014 July 16, 2014 is day 197 of 2014 July 16, 2014 is day 197
20033 November 6, 2014 November 6, 2014 is day 310 of 2014 November 6, 2014 is day 3
Example 7: Using the PICTURE Statement and Date Directives for a Custom Date
Format
Well, the third column is impressive. Nothing other than the XDATE format we created was
used to produce this. So where can you go wrong? First, remember that you cannot
translate date values with time or datetime formats. Since we are working with date values
here, make sure that you have defined the DATATYPE correctly (line 4 in the above code.)
Otherwise, SAS will interpret the data as seconds after midnight when DATATYPE=TIME or
seconds after midnight on January 1, 1960 if DATATYPE=DATETIME, and your result will be
spectacularly incorrect. This is the same problem (incorrect context) you have when you use
the wrong type of SAS-supplied format to translate a value you have. Second, you need to
make sure you use single quotes around your picture specification. If you do not, SAS will
attempt to translate the date directives as a macro call. Lastly, you need to use a length
specification long enough to show all of your text. The default length of a picture format is
the number of characters between the quotes in the picture specification, which is 25 in this
case. That is not long enough to accommodate all of the text in the format because each of
the format directives are only two characters long, while the values they display are much
longer than that. That is why the format length is specified for the third column. The last
column shows what you get if you do not specify any length for the XDATE. format. As you
can see, all of the values in the fourth column are truncated to 25 characters. You can also
avoid this problem by explicitly defining a default length in the PICTURE statement with the
DEFAULT= option as shown in Sample Code 3:
PROC FORMAT;
PICTURE xdate (DEFAULT=40)
Sample Code 3: The DEFAULT= Option in PROC FORMAT
The last issue is that even though the dates are displayed as text, the underlying values are
numbers, so they are right-justified in the columns. You can use style options in ODS to
solve the reporting problem, but you may find yourself with some unwanted leading spaces
if you use the formatted date in a concatenated string. However, you can easily avoid this
by using the CATX(), CATS(), or CATT() functions for string concatenation.
7
DATES IN TITLES AND FOOTNOTES
Now that we know how to dress up our dates just the way we want them, how can we show
them other than in the detail of our reports? For example, if you have a report that is run
every week, you could put the date in the title like this:
TITLE 'Date of report: March 24, 2019';

Unfortunately, that means you will be responsible for changing the code every week. You
can get around this by using one of the date and time automatic macro variables in SAS:
&SYSDATE; &SYSDATE9; &SYSDAY, &SYSTIME. They are set when the SAS job starts and
you cannot change them. Sample Code 4 demonstrates:
TITLE "Date of report: &SYSDATE9";
/* Since you are using a macro variable, you MUST have DOUBLE quotes around
the text */

Sample Code 4: Using SAS Automatic Macro Variables for Dates

If you were to run this job on March 24, 2019, this statement would put the text "Date of
report: 24MAR2019" at the top of each page. The following day, the title would be "Date of
report: 25MAR2019". That is functional, but not very appealing. None of the macro variables
is particularly appealing in their native format: &SYSTIME comes out as a 24-hour clock
value (e.g., 23:00), while &SYSDATE is the same as &SYSDATE9 with a two-digit year
(24MAR09). However, &SYSDAY will look like a proper day of the week (Tuesday).
If that's not exactly what you had in mind, don't worry. You can take advantage of formats
and display dates (and times) within your TITLEs and FOOTNOTEs exactly how you want
them to look. You can always get the current date and time from SAS using the DATE(),
TIME(), and/or DATETIME() functions. It will involve the creation of a macro variable to hold
your text, but it takes only a little macro or DATA step coding to do it. Before you put your
own date on a page, make sure you take the default date display off your pages with the
NODATE system option. Sample Code 5 illustrates:
OPTIONS NODATE; /* Remove standard SAS date display */
DATA _NULL_; /* Don't need to create a dataset */

/* Create a global macro variable called &RDATE and give it the value of
today's date formatted with the worddate32. format. Use the STRIP()
function to remove leading spaces or else you'll get an unwelcome
surprise! Use CALL SYMPUTX instead of CALL SYMPUT to remove any
trailing blanks in the macro variable. */
CALL SYMPUTX('rdate',STRIP(PUT(DATE(),worddate32.)));
RUN;
TITLE "Date of report: &rdate"; /* Don't forget DOUBLE quotes! */
Sample Code 5: Using CALL SYMPUTX() to Create a Macro Date Variable
The value of the macro variable &RDATE is "March 24, 2019", and it is left-justified, so the
title on each page will now read "Date of report: March 24, 2019". You can take this code as
written above, change the format from WORDDATE32. to whatever you need, put it into
your reports and the date in your title will automatically change each day they are run.

8
Next is another example of what you can do with custom formats and your TITLEs and
FOOTNOTEs. Once the format is created, this can also be done with a DATA step as shown
above. The first part of Sample Code 6 below creates a custom format named DEDATE using
the PICTURE statement.
1 PROC FORMAT;
2 PICTURE dedate
3 . - .z = "No Date Available" /* What if the date (datetime in this
case) is missing? */
4 LOW - HIGH = '%B %d, %Y at %I:%0M %p' (DATATYPE=DATETIME)
5 ;
6 RUN;

7 /* Now use the %SYSFUNC() function to access a DATA step function in

macro language */
8 %LET rdate=%SYSFUNC(DATETIME(),dedate32.);
9 TITLE "Date of report: &rdate"; /* Don't forget DOUBLE quotes! */
Sample Code 6: Using Custom Formats with Macro Functions for Titles and
Footnotes
The FORMAT procedure uses a mixture of text and date directives to create the display. Line
3 is there in case a datetime value is missing (if you use the DATETIME() function, it will
never be missing.) Line 4 contains the date directives as well as text that will be printed
with the date directives, but the most important part of the line is the DATATYPE=
argument. This is not optional, because it tells the format what type of value to expect so
that it can be translated correctly. The value of the DATATYPE argument can be DATE,
TIME, or DATETIME. Sending the wrong type of data to a custom format will give you
incorrect results just like sending the wrong type of data to a SAS-supplied format does.
Line 9 demonstrates a nice feature of the %SYSFUNC function: you can format the result of
a call without needing to use the PUT() or PUTN() function, so you can just tell the macro
processor the format you want to use without having to nest %SYSFUNC or %QSYSFUNC
calls. You will need to specify the length of the format because its default length is only 22
(the number of characters between the quotes in line 4.) This also automatically justifies the
formatted result properly within the macro variable &RDATE without having to use the SAS
autocall macro %LEFT() to left-justify the result and store it in the macro variable &RDATE.
Our report title will now say, Date of report: March 24, 2019 at 4:08 PM (italics mine, not
actual appearance) as per the date directive in line 4. Your title will update each time you
execute the code that creates the macro variable. If you do not want the title line to update
throughout your report, make sure you only execute the code once, and do it at the
beginning of your program.

READING DATES AND TIMES AND DATETIMES

So far, all our examples have used date constants, but you cannot put a date constant
everywhere you need a date, such as in data. If you are converting text data, then you
have to use informats to read the data correctly. Depending on the source of your data, you
will need either an INPUT statement or the INPUT() function as well as an informat.
Example 8 consists of ASCII file data, the code to process it correctly, and a display of the
result:

9
 10/26/2000
09/03/1998
05/14/1967
08/25/1989
07/01/2004
03/16/2001
03/16/1971
04/03/1968
09/25/1965

To read the above file, you would use the following DATA step. Note the MMDDYY10. after
the variable name SAMPLE_DATE. This is the informat, and it tells SAS how to process the
ten characters it is reading (that's what the 10 in MMDDYY10. means.)
1. DATA read_dates;
2. INFILE "a_few_dates.txt" PAD;
3. INPUT @1 sample_date :MMDDYY10.;
4. RUN;
The first column is the value that is stored in the dataset created by the above code. Extra
columns have been added to show that value when it is displayed using two different
formats. The output is right-aligned because that is the SAS default for numeric values,
regardless of formatting.

SAS Date Value Formatted Using MMDDYY10. Formatted Using WEEKDATE.

20022 10/26/2014 Sunday, October 26, 2014
19239 09/03/2012 Monday, September 3, 2012
2690 05/14/1967 Sunday, May 14, 1967
20325 08/25/2015 Tuesday, August 25, 2015
19905 07/01/2014 Tuesday, July 1, 2014
18702 03/16/2011 Wednesday, March 16, 2011
4092 03/16/1971 Tuesday, March 16, 1971
3015 04/03/1968 Wednesday, April 3, 1968
38254 09/25/2064 Thursday, September 25, 2064
Example 8: Using an Informat to Process ASCII Date Data
Since we looked at the file first, we knew all the data looked like "mm/dd/yyyy", and we
simply told the INPUT statement what it would see when it read the field. By specifying that
informat, we told SAS how to translate what seems to be a character string ("/" is not a
number) into a SAS date value. It's easy to get the wrong result here: if you use the wrong
informat for your data, things will definitely go wrong. In most cases, using the wrong
informat will give you an error, but you need to be careful with some of the informats that
differ only in the order of month, day, and/or year. The MMDDYY. informat will not give you
the same result as the DDMMYY. informat, and it would not give you any sign that
something abnormal happened until the middle two digits in the data field were greater than
12. Example 9 uses the same file as Example 8, but the wrong informat:

10
 1 DATA read_dates;
2 INFILE "c:\book\examples\a_few_dates.txt";
3 INPUT @1 sample_date :DDMMYY10.;
4 RUN;

NOTE: Invalid data for sample_date in line 1 1-10.

RULE: ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6-
---+----7----+----8----+--
1 10/26/2014 10
sample_date=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=1
NOTE: Invalid data for sample_date in line 3 1-10.
3 05/14/2012 10
sample_date=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=3
NOTE: Invalid data for sample_date in line 4 1-10.
4 08/25/2015 10
sample_date=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=4
NOTE: Invalid data for sample_date in line 6 1-10.
6 03/16/2011 10
sample_date=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=6
NOTE: Invalid data for sample_date in line 7 1-10.
7 03/16/1971 10
sample_date=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=7
NOTE: Invalid data for sample_date in line 9 1-10.
9 09/25/2064 10
sample_date=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=9

At least you can see the error messages. But you didn't get an error message on every line.
What happened to the data on lines 2, 5 and 8? Let's show the result side by side with the
table from Example 8 on the right in italics.

Formatted
SAS Date Using Formatted Using SAS Date Formatted Using
Value MMDDYY10. WEEKDATE. Value MMDDYY10.
20022 10/26/2014
19061 03/09/2012 Friday, March 9, 2012 19239 09/03/2012
2690 05/14/1967
20325 08/25/2015
19730 01/07/2014 Tuesday, January 7, 2014 19905 07/01/2014
18702 03/16/2011
4092 03/16/1971
2985 03/04/1968 Monday, March 4, 1968 3015 04/03/1968
38254 09/25/2064
Example 9: When You Use an Incorrect Informat to Read Data
You can see how important it is to use the correct informat; instead of the data you expect,
you get missing values and incorrect data.

11
HOW DO I USE AN INFORMAT WHEN MY RAW DATA IS DELIMITED?
Example 8 used a column pointer (the "@1") to tell SAS where to start reading, because the
data were neatly aligned in columns throughout the flat file.
INPUT @1 sample_date :MMDDYY10.;

What do you do when you have a file that doesn't use columns, but has delimiters between
fields such as tab characters or commas? Start the informat name with a colon (":").
Example 10 will use data from a CSV file:
Smith,12DEC1950,Goal,1989
Jones,30OCT1994,Defense,
Hull,9AUG1964,Wing,2005
Oates,27AUG1962,Center,2004
As you can see, the obvious date isn't in the same column for each line. The following code
is used to read these data. The DELIMDATES dataset is then used with PROC REPORT to
produce the resulting table.
DATA delimdates;
INFILE "delim.csv" DLM=',' DSD PAD MISSOVER;
/* MISSOVER translates missing columns into missing data */
INPUT name $ birthDate :date. position $ retired;
RUN;

The bolded ":date." in line 3 tells SAS to apply the DATE. informat to the second field, since
we can't figure out where the field starts. Here's the result, again using an aliased variable
to provide a formatted version of the variable birthDate.
Birth Date
Name (SAS Date Value) Formatted Birth Date Position Year Retired
Smith -3307 Tuesday, December 12, 1950 Goal 1989
Jones 12721 Sunday, October 30, 1994 Defense
Hull 1682 Sunday, August 9, 1964 Wing 2005
Oates 969 Monday, August 27, 1962 Center 2004
Example 10: Using the Colon (:) Informat Modifier to Read Delimited Data

THERE HAS TO BE AN EASIER WAY TO READ DATES AND TIMES

Version 9 of SAS addressed one major problem with reading dates from flat files into SAS:
you had to know what your date and time data looked like before you could process it from
a flat file into SAS. The ANYDTDTE., ANYDTDTM., and ANYDTTME. informats will translate
dates, times, and datetime values, respectively, into their corresponding SAS System values
without having to know the representation of these dates, datetime, and time values in
advance.
Of course, there are a couple of warnings: if you are going to leave it to SAS to figure out
what the data look like, it will add some overhead to the processing, but the amount of
extra processing depends on how many dates you need to process. What may be negligible
for small amounts of data could become significant in a multi-billion record data warehouse
with multiple dates to handle.
Overhead aside, doesn't this solve all of your problems with dates and informats?
Unfortunately, no. What if you have to read a value such as "06/11/2015"? Or even worse,
"06/11/15"? Is it June 11, 2015, November 6, 2015, or November 15, 2006? The

12
DATESTYLE= option allows you to tell SAS what it should be. Table 2 details the four
possible values, assuming the default YEARCUTOFF value of 2015:
Sets the default order as month, day, year. "06-11-15" would be translated as June
MDY
11, 2015
Sets the default order as day, month, year. "06-11-15" would be translated as
DMY
November 6, 2015
Sets the default order as year, month, day. "06-11-15" would be translated as
YMD
November 15, 2006
Sets the default value according to the LOCALE= system option. When the default
LOCALE
value for the LOCALE= system option is "English_US", this sets DATESTYLE to MDY.
(default)
Therefore, by default, "06-11-15" would be translated as June 11, 2015.
Table 2: Values for the DATESTYLE= Option
Although it may seem simple to resolve ambiguous dates using the ANYDT series of
informats, it is not foolproof. If you use them, always check the resulting data, especially if
you need to process dates with two-digit years. However, it is good programming practice
to check your datasets regardless of how simple the task of creating them may seem.

AM I READING ENOUGH?
One last issue with reading dates and times from an external file is ensuring you are reading
the correct number of characters in the field. All of the informats have a length
specification, which tells SAS how many characters to process using the informat. For
example, the MMDDYY10. informat reads ten characters and will attempt to translate it as
mm-dd-yyyy, although the exact separator between month, day, and year may vary. If you
do not use the length specification on your informat, each one has its own default length.
However, this default may not match your data.
The bottom line is that when you are reading formatted date values that have not been
stored as SAS dates, it is best to look at the data you have produced before you actually
use it.

CREATING DATES, TIMES AND DATETIMES FROM NUMBERS

SAS has three functions to create SAS date, time, and datetime values from individual
elements such as month, year, hour, and minute. The MDY() function takes individual
values for month, day and year, and converts them to a SAS date value. Similarly, the
HMS() function creates SAS time values from hours, minutes, and seconds. Finally, the
DHMS() function yields SAS datetime values from dates, hours, minutes, and seconds. Each
of the functions needs all of its component arguments, e.g., the DHMS() function needs
non-missing values for date, hour, minute, and second. If you are missing any one of these
components, you will get a missing value as the result. All the arguments to these functions
must be numeric; they can be actual values or numeric variables. In the DHMS() function,
the date used can be a date literal, a SAS date value, or a numeric variable.
Month, day and year are the arguments to the MDY() function as follows:
MDY(month,day,year); This function calculates a SAS date value as long as: 1) none of
the arguments are missing; 2) month is between 1 and 12, and 3) the combination of
month, day, and year is a valid calendar date. As an example of the last, MDY(2,31,2019);
will return a missing value because February 31, 2019, does not exist.
The HMS(hours,minutes,seconds); function creates a SAS time value from the hours,
minutes, and seconds given, and once again, all three values must be non-missing. When
you use this function, it is important to remember that there are two distinct concepts of
time: 1) clock time, and 2) elapsed time. Because of that, the only restriction on this

13
function is that hours must be greater than or equal to zero, while minutes and seconds
have no restrictions on their value. HMS(7,45,80); will calculate to 27,980 seconds; to SAS,
that is exactly the same number as HMS(7,46,20). The format you use ultimately
determines the context of the time value. If you are talking about clock time, the value
returned will be MOD(result,86400). You can use the following program to test this and help
your understanding, substituting actual non-clock values for hours, minutes, and second.
The first value printed in the resulting log will be the total number of seconds; the second
value will display the number of seconds calculated to a 24-hour clock (that
MOD(value,86400) thing again.) Sample Code 7 illustrates:
DATA _NULL_;
x = HMS(hours,minutes,seconds);
PUT x= +3 'x=' x time.;
RUN;
Sample Code 7: How the HMS() Function Works
The DHMS(date,hour,minute,second); function will create a datetime value from the
component parts of date, hour, minute, and second in the same way the previous two
functions work. Again, each argument must not be missing. date can be a date literal, a
SAS date value, or a numeric variable.

EXTRACTING MONTH, DAY, YEAR, ETC., FROM YOUR SAS DATE

Table 3 lists the functions that will pull the individual component values from SAS date, time
and datetime values. arg represents the appropriate date, time or datetime value for the
function:
DATEPART(arg) Extracts the date from a SAS datetime value as a SAS date value.
DAY(arg) Extracts the number of the day of the month from a SAS date value.
HOUR(arg) Extracts the hour from a SAS time value.
MINUTE(arg) Extracts the minute from a SAS time value.
MONTH(arg) Extracts the month from a SAS date value.
SECOND(arg) Extracts the second from a SAS time value.
TIMEPART(arg) Extracts the time portion from a SAS datetime value as a SAS time value.
Extracts the number of the day of the week, where Sunday=1, Monday=2,
WEEKDAY(arg)
etc. from a SAS date value.
Extracts the year from a SAS date value. Since obtaining the year value is
YEAR(arg) the point of using this function, it is important to remember that the
YEARCUTOFF option affects two-digit years.
Table 3: Functions to Get Components from a SAS Date, Time, or Datetime Value
You need to make sure you use the appropriate function for the type of value you are
working with. For example, do not try to use the DAY() function to extract a day from your
datetime value. It will not work correctly, as shown in Example 11.

14
 DATA _NULL_;
datetime = "27JAN1960:12:35:00"dt;
time = "12:35:00"t;
date = "27JAN1960"d;
day_datim = DAY(datetime);
day_tm = DAY(time);
day_date = DAY(date);
PUT datetime= +3 time= +3 date= ;
PUT day_datim= +3 day_tm= +3 day_date=;
RUN;

datetime=2291700 time=45300 date=26

day_datim=20 day_tm=10 day_date=27

Example 11: Using a SAS Date Function to Process the Wrong Type of Data
The first line of output shows the actual values that SAS is operating on. In the above
example, I purposely used an early datetime value (2,291,700 seconds relative to midnight,
January 1, 1960) because it gives me a non-missing value, albeit incorrect, for the day. If
you use a datetime sometime after March of 1960, SAS will give you an error message.
However, here the error message does not occur because SAS recognizes it as a datetime
value; rather it occurs because it is trying to determine a day for a value that is too large
for the function to work. Example 12 is trickier:
DATA _NULL_;
datetime = "27MAR1998:12:15:00"dt;
time = "12:15:00"t; date = "27MAR1998"d;
minit_datim = MINUTE(datetime);
minit_tm = MINUTE(time);
minit_date = MINUTE(date);
PUT datetime= +3 time= +3 date= ;
PUT minit_datim= +3 minit_tm= +3 minit_date=;
RUN;

datetime=1206620100 time=44100 date=13965

minit_datim=15 minit_tm=15 minit_date=52

Example 12: SAS Date/Time Functions Give Misleading Results Due to Incorrect
Context
What happened here? Isn't that the correct value for the datetime value? Not exactly.
Remember that both times and datetimes are stored in seconds since midnight, and that
times cycle every 86,400 seconds. Any value greater than 86,400 (the number of seconds
in a day) just cycles into the next day. Therefore, when you calculate minutes from the
datetime value as shown above, you may seem to get the right answer, when in reality, you
are getting the result of MOD(value,86400). So while the time extraction functions seem to
work with datetimes, it is not good practice. You can also clearly see that trying to get the
minute out of the date value gives you an incorrect result.
The YEAR() function is affected by the YEARCUTOFF option only if you have a date literal
with a two-digit year, and this can lead to unexpected results. On the other hand, if you are
extracting the year from a SAS date value, the YEARCUTOFF option will have no effect,
because the concept of two-digit year vs. four-digit year does not exist; it is simply the
number of days since January 1, 1960.

15
INTERVALS
Intervals are another way people track periods of time. SAS can allow you to manipulate
dates and times and datetimes by these intervals. SAS Intervals are very powerful, but
frequently misunderstood, especially when they are used in association with the two interval
calculation functions INTCK() and INTNX(). The INTCK() function counts the number of
intervals between two given dates, times, or datetimes, while the INTNX() function takes a
given date, time or datetime and increments it by a given number of intervals. SAS has
several standard intervals defined in it. The intervals represent periods of time such as
days, weeks, months and quarters, to name a few. Appendix 3 contains the complete list of
SAS-supplied intervals, along with the default starting point for each one. While intervals
such as "YEAR" and "MONTH" may seem self-explanatory, if you just jump right in and use
SAS intervals without reading about them first, you may not get the results you expect. A
paper containing a more in-depth discussion of SAS date intervals is listed in the references
section of this paper.

WHEN IS A YEAR NOT A YEAR?

The syntax for the INTCK() function is:
INTCK(interval,start-of-period,end-of-period,method);
interval must be in quotes. This function calculates the number of intervals between the
dates represented by start-of-period and end-of-period. method is either CONTINUOUS
or DISCRETE, and must be enclosed in quotes. If you do not specify method, DISCRETE is
the default. The CONTINUOUS method can best be summed up as counting intervals the
way we intuitively think about periods of time such as months or years. For the purposes of
this paper, however, we will focus on the DISCRETE method, which is how the INTCK()
function has calculated intervals since its creation. A great deal of existing code relies on the
DISCRETE method, and I strongly advise against changing it to the more intuitive method.
To illustrate the potential for problems with SAS intervals, consider Sample Code 8:
DATA _NULL_;
v1 = INTCK('YEAR','01jan2018'd,'01jan2019'd);
v2 = INTCK('YEAR','31dec2018'd,'01jan2019'd);
PUT v1= +3 v2= +3;
RUN;
v1=1 v2=1

Sample Code 8: How the INTCK() Function Calculates a Year

Now wait a minute. We know that a year from December 31, 2018, is not January 1, 2019.
What happened? SAS intervals are not a shortcut to doing the math. When the DISCRETE
method is used (either explicitly or by default,) the INTCK() function counts the number of
times that the period interval begins between start-of-period and end-of-period. It does
not count the number of complete intervals between start-of-period and end-of-period. The
YEAR interval will start on January 1, 2018 for any date in 2018. Therefore, given any
starting date in 2018, INTCK() will only count a single YEAR interval for any given date in
2018 because it only passes January 1, 2018 one time. There is an enormous potential for
bad results if you misunderstand how INTCK() calculates using its default (the DISCRETE)
method. The important thing to remember about intervals is that they are based on the
starting point of the interval for the start-of-period date given to the function, and not the
start-of-period date itself.

16
WHEN IS 3 MONTHS FROM TODAY?
The INTNX() function advances a given date, time or datetime by a specified number of
intervals. The syntax is:
INTNX(interval,start-date,number-of-increments,alignment);
interval is one of the SAS intervals from the previous page (again in quotes), start-date is
the starting date, and number-of-increments is how many intervals you want to change
the date. alignment will adjust the result of INTNX() relative to the interval given. It can
be 'B', 'M', or 'E' (quotes necessary) for the beginning, middle, or end of the interval,
respectively. There is also the 'S' alignment value, which will adjust the result to the same
day as given in the start-date argument. Example 13 illustrates how INTNX() and
alignment works using a sample program that adds six months to March 20, 2017. The
result is shown in bold:
DATA _NULL_;
a = INTNX('MONTH','20MAR2017'd,6);
b = INTNX('MONTH','20MAR2017'd,6,'B');
c = INTNX('MONTH','20MAR2017'd,6,'M');
d = INTNX('MONTH','20MAR2017'd,6,'E');
e = INTNX('MONTH','20MAR2017'd,6,'S');
PUT "6 months from 3/20/2017 with default alignment = " a mmddyy10.;
PUT "6 months from 3/20/2017 aligned with beginning of MONTH interval= " b
mmddyy10.;
PUT "6 months from 3/20/2017 aligned with middle of MONTH interval= " c
mmddyy10.;
PUT "6 months from 3/20/2017 aligned with end of MONTH interval= " d
mmddyy10.;
PUT "6 months from 3/20/2017 aligned with same day in MONTH interval= " e
mmddyy10.;
RUN;

6 months from 3/20/2017 with default alignment = 09/01/2017

6 months from 3/20/2017 aligned with beginning of MONTH interval= 09/01/2017
6 months from 3/20/2017 aligned with middle of MONTH interval= 09/15/2017
6 months from 3/20/2017 aligned with end of MONTH interval= 09/30/2017
6 months from 3/20/2017 aligned with same day in MONTH interval= 09/20/2017
Example 13: How the INTNX() Function and the Alignment Argument Work

BUT I DON'T WANT MY YEAR TO START ON JANUARY 1

Since the default starting point of an interval is at the beginning of it, SAS seems to have a
blind spot when it comes to figuring out intervals that do not coincide with that. There is a
way to shift the starting point of any given interval by creating your own interval definition.
For example, what if you wanted to know the number of YEAR intervals between two dates,
but instead of calculating calendar years, you wanted to calculate your company's fiscal
year, which starts on February 1? You tell SAS how many periods to shift. Each interval has
a shift unit. For years, the shift unit is months, so you will tell SAS to shift the starting point
of the year in terms of months. A shifted interval is the interval name, followed by a period,
and the number of periods to shift. To shift the start of the YEAR interval to February 1, you
would use the interval "YEAR.2".
It is important to remember that when you count the number of periods to shift, you need
to include the beginning of the period. We are not shifting the start of the year interval by
one month to move to February; we are moving the start of the year to the second month.

17
If you do not account for this, you will be off by one unit. Another handy way to think of it is
that the YEAR.1 interval is the same as the YEAR interval.

ISO 8601 AND SAS DATES, TIMES, AND DATETIME VALUES

For us long-time SAS users (pre-version 9), making dates, times and datetimes adhere to
the ISO 8601 standard required a little bit of ingenuity. There are macros that have been
constructed to take the ISO representations and turn them into SAS-appropriate values,
and to transform SAS values for date, time, and datetimes into the ISO 8601
representation. If you are using one of those macros, and you now have access to SAS
version 9 or higher (the ISO 8601 formats and informats were first introduced in SAS 8.2,
but version 9 has several enhancements), you can stop now. For the sake of brevity, this
paper will only discuss the conversion of dates, times, and datetimes between SAS and their
ISO 8601 extended representations, and not the more complicated concept of describing
periods.
To convert an ISO 8601 datetime value (which is a character variable) into its SAS
equivalent and its components, you just need three lines of code:
SAS-datetime-variable = INPUT(ISO 8601-datetime-variable),E8601DT.);
SAS-date-variable = INPUT(ISO 8601-datetime-variable),E8601DA.);
SAS-time-variable = TIMEPART(SAS-datetime-variable);

That's it, unless the ISO 8601 datetime value includes time zones, in which case the
datetime conversion becomes:
SAS-datetime-variable = INPUT(ISO 8601-datetime-variable,E8601DZ.);

If you are using a version of SAS prior to 9.4, here's a necessary alternative:
SAS-datetime-variable = INPUT(COMPRESS(ISO 8601-datetime-variable,'-:.+ '),
B8601DT.);

Why do you need to use the COMPRESS() function? It's a solution to a problem described in
SAS Note 43337, which was fixed in SAS 9.3 TS1M1. Prior to that release, if you had a
partial ISO date value (e.g., "2011-03-20T15:30"), you would not be able to process it with
the B8601DT. informat because the default length of the informat is 19 (which is also the
minimum length allowed by SAS), but the length of the character value is 16. You cannot
specify B8601DT16. (if you try, you get an error.) Conversely, if you use the default length,
you will get the error message: "NOTE: Invalid argument to function INPUT" in your
SAS log.
There is also a major downside to using the basic (starts with 'B", not "E") ISO datetime
informats: SAS will make assumptions for partial ISO date, time, and datetime values. This
can be tricky when it comes to processing partial ISO datetime values where the date
and/or time may not be complete. SAS will not return a missing value, even if that is what
you want. SAS will substitute midnight for missing times, the first for missing days, and
January for missing months. Only if there is no year present, then the datetime value will be
set to missing. The workaround is easy. You can conditionally execute the datetime code
above by checking the ISO string for the letter 'T'. If it is present, then the code will provide
you with a datetime value. If not, then set it to missing, and calculate the date as follows:
SAS-date-variable = DATEPART(INPUT(COMPRESS(ISO 8601-date-variable,'-:. ')
,B8601DT.));

It is even easier to represent a SAS datetime value using the ISO 8601 standard: you
simply use one of the formats in Table 4:

18
 E8601DA. Represents a SAS date value in the format yyyy-mm-dd
E8601DT. Represents a SAS datetime value in the format yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.ffffff
(ffffff represents fractional seconds)
E8601DZ. Represents a SAS datetime value in the format yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss+|-
hhmm
E8601TM. Represents a SAS time value in the format hh:mm:ss.ffffff (ffffff represents
fractional seconds)
Table 4: ISO 8601 Formats

EXCEL
We cannot overlook the potential for incorrect results whenever you convert from Microsoft
Excel into SAS or vice versa. Like SAS, Excel counts days from a fixed reference point, and
it uses January 1, 1900. Excel keeps track of times as decimal fractions where you can
multiply by 24 (hours) to get the clock time of the day. Six a.m. is a quarter of a day (.25);
noon is exactly one-half day; and so on. A datetime value in Excel is the sum of the day and
the time value. For example, September 5, 2014 is 41887 to Excel, so noon on September
5, 2014 would be 41887.5. Unfortunately, this also means Excel does not keep track of time
as a separate entity from dates. A period of more than 24 hours is translated by Excel into
more than 1 day. As an example, if you have a period of 36 hours (1.5 in Excel), Excel will
happily convert this into noon of January 2, 1900 for you.
Exchanging historical dates between SAS and Excel is a definite problem. While Excel uses a
zero point of January 1, 1900, unlike SAS, it cannot count backwards from zero. Therefore,
any date prior to 1900 in Excel is represented as text, not as an Excel date value. What do
you do if you have dates before January 1, 1900, to convert? Going to Excel, you will have
to store them as character strings, and you will not be able to use any of the Excel math or
date functions on them. On the other hand, if you are going from Excel to SAS, then you
can use an INPUT statement and a DATA step to process a CSV file. If you use the IMPORT
wizard and/or procedure, you may get the dreaded dot, or worse. SAS may decide the
entire column is a character variable, leaving you with text where your date values should
be. Unless you have historical dates, the IMPORT procedure or SAS/ACCESS ® will convert
dates, times and datetimes for you, and it is fairly reliable. However, when you are
importing into SAS from any other software or database, always test your dates, times and
datetimes, because different software uses different representations of dates, times, and
datetimes, and the default conversion is not foolproof.

SUMMARY
The way SAS handles dates, times, and datetimes allows for a great deal of flexibility in the
display, manipulation, and computation of these important data. However, that flexibility
can also make it easy to make mistakes. Dates, times, and datetimes are stored as
numbers in SAS. Dates are counted in days from a zero point of January 1, 1960. Times are
counted in seconds from a zero point of midnight of the current day, and datetimes are
counted in seconds since midnight, January 1, 1960. Each day that passes increments the
day counter by one, and each second that passes increments the time and datetime
counters by one.
SAS dates and times are displayed by using formats. There are many SAS-supplied formats
and each displays a date, time, or a datetime value as something we can recognize. Date
formats are specific to date values, time formats are specific to time values, and datetime
formats are specific to datetime values. If you use the wrong type of format, your display
will be incorrect. If none of the SAS-supplied formats meets your needs, you can create

19
your own, either by defining the display to correlate with certain values, or by defining the
display with a template using symbolic directives. You can use formats to customize titles
and footnotes in your output with date and time information.
We use informats to translate dates and times as we know them into the values recognized
by SAS. As with formats, there are many SAS-supplied informats designed to translate
standard alphanumeric or numeric representations of dates into SAS date, time, or datetime
values. You need to specify the number of characters to be processed by the informat, and
you should use the correct informat for the alphanumeric characters you are processing. If
you do not know the format of the alphanumeric characters you will be processing, you can
use the ANYDATE informats, but be prepared for your job to take longer, and always check
your results.
You may extract the individual components of a SAS date, time, or datetime value, such as
month number, day or hour. However, you need to make sure you do not try to extract a
month from a time, or an hour from a date. You may also create a SAS date, time, or
datetime value from individual components. Whenever you do this, remember that all of the
arguments to the MDY(), HMS(), and DHMS() functions must be non-missing for these
functions to work.
It is frequently useful to refer to periods of time by familiar references such as year or
quarter. SAS uses intervals to handle this. There are several such standard periods defined
in SAS, and two functions that use them, INTCK() and INTNX(). The most important thing
to remember about these functions, is that by default, they use SAS intervals by measuring
the intervals from the start point of the interval, not the dates you supply.
There are many more uses of SAS dates, more functions relating to dates and times and
datetimes, and more capabilities of intervals than have been shown in this paper. This
introduction provides an overview of handling and manipulating dates and times in SAS, and
addresses a large percentage of date- and time-related tasks. Even if you need something
that has not been covered in this paper, the tools SAS provides to handle dates and times
should allow you to accomplish your tasks.

REFERENCES
Morgan, Derek P. 2014. The Essential Guide to SAS® Dates and Times, Second Edition.
Cary, NC: SAS Institute Inc.
Morgan, Derek, 2017, “Demystifying Intervals.” Proceedings of MWSUG 2017. Available at:
http://www.mwsug.org/proceedings/2017/BB/MWSUG-2017-BB042.pdf

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Comments and questions welcome to:
Derek Morgan
E-mail: [email protected]
SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or
trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA
registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.

20
APPENDIX 1: HOW DO I?
1) Convert a character date into a valid SAS date?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions, usually occurring when moving data
from other software into SAS. The example uses the ANYDTDTE. informat, but it is more
efficient to use one of the specific date informats.
SAS-date-variable = INPUT(character_date,ANYDTDTE.);

2) Put a date into a file name?

Ever been asked to label a file with a date? This example puts the full month name and
four-digit year in the name of the Excel file.
PROC FORMAT LIB=LIBRARY;
PICTURE monthyr (DEFAULT=15)
LOW-HIGH = '%B %Y' (DATATYPE=DATE)
;;;;
RUN;
%LET datestr=%SYSFUNC(STRIP(%SYSFUNC(DATE(),monthyr.)));
ODS EXCEL FILE="&datestr Monthly Report.xlsx";

With a little more effort, you can label worksheet tabs in a workbook using this method.
3) Turn my date from a number into something I understand?
Use a format. In a DATA step or procedure, the code would be:
FORMAT date mmddyy10.;

In SQL:
SELECT date FORMAT=mmddyy10.

4) Turn my asterisks into a date? I used a date format like you said.
This generally means the value you are trying to display is too big to display with the format
you are using. With dates, this happens most often when you use a date format to display a
datetime value. The log segment below demonstrates:
1 DATA _NULL_;
2 datetime=1682340217;
3 PUT "Datetime value formatted with DATE9. format " datetime date9.;
4 PUT "Datetime value formatted with DATETIME19. format " datetime
datetime19.;
5 RUN;
Datetime value formatted with DATE9. format *********
Datetime value formatted with DATETIME19. format 23APR2013:12:43:37

You may also see this problem with custom picture formats. If you are using a custom
format to display your dates and you get asterisks, the format length you specified isn’t
long enough. If you didn’t specify a format length, then it’s set to the default length SAS
automatically calculated for your custom format based on the maximum number of
characters between quotes. Since date directives only occupy two spaces, it’s probably
shorter than you need. To fix it, either specify a length when you use the format like this:
FORMAT mydate myformat14.;

21
Or use the DEFAULT= option when you create the custom format:
PICTURE myformat (DEFAULT=14) /* Display date as full month name and 4-
digit year */
LOW-HIGH = '%B %Y' (DATATYPE=DATE)

The maximum number of letters (English spelling) in a full month name is nine. You also
count the space and four digits for the year; therefore, a minimum of fourteen characters is
needed to display the date as full month name and year.
5) Figure out how many days have elapsed between two SAS dates?
Since SAS keeps track of dates as number of days relative to January 1, 1960, subtraction
is the quickest method. This also works for times and datetimes, but you will get the result
in seconds.
how_many_days = date2 - date1;

6) Create a datetime from month, day and year when I don't have a time?
This takes two steps if you don't already have a SAS date:
SAS_date = MDY(month,day,year);
SAS_datetime_value = DHMS(SAS_date,0,0,0);

If you have a SAS date and SAS time available you can just use both in the DHMS()
function. SAS times are stored in seconds, so there's no need to convert into hours,
minutes, seconds, but you do need zeroes as placeholders for hours and minutes:
SAS_datetime_value = DHMS(SAS_date,0,0,SAS_time);

22
APPENDIX 2: HANDY CUSTOM DATE FORMATS AND INFORMATS
Here are some of the most common date formats and informats I've needed. I create a
permanent format library for my projects, so I don't have to worry about coding these every
time I need one of them.
PROC FORMAT LIB=LIBRARY;

INVALUE mthct (UPCASE) /* translate month abbreviations into month numbers

*/
'JAN' = 1
'FEB' = 2
'MAR' = 3
'APR' = 4
'MAY' = 5
'JUN' = 6
'JUL' = 7
'AUG' = 8
'SEP' = 9
'OCT' = 10
'NOV' = 11
'DEC' = 12
' ', . = .
OTHER = _ERROR_
;;;;

VALUE ctday /* Translate weekday numbers (like from the WEEKDAY() function)
Into weekday names
*/
1 = "Sunday"
2 = "Monday"
3 = "Tuesday"
4 = "Wednesday"
5 = "Thursday"
6 = "Friday"
7 = "Saturday"
;;;;

INVALUE ctday /* Translate weekday names into weekday numbers */

"Sunday" = 1
"Monday" = 2
"Tuesday" = 3
"Wednesday" = 4
"Thursday" = 5
"Friday" = 6
"Saturday" = 7
OTHER = _ERROR_;
;;;;

PICTURE monthyr (DEFAULT=14) /* Display date as full month name and 4-digit
year */
LOW-HIGH = '%B %Y' (DATATYPE=DATE)
;;;;
RUN;

23
APPENDIX 3: SAS INTERVALS AND THEIR STARTING POINTS
Default
Starting
Interval Name Definition Point

DAY Daily intervals Each day

Each
WEEK Weekly intervals of seven days
Sunday
Daily intervals with Friday-Saturday-Sunday counted as the
same day (five-day work week with a Saturday-Sunday
WEEKDAYdaysW weekend). days identifies the individual numbers of the Each day
weekend day(s) by number (1=Sunday ... 7=Saturday). By
default, days="17", so the default interval is WEEKDAY17W.
1st, 11th,
TENDAY Ten-day intervals (a U.S. automobile industry convention) and 21st of
each month
1st and 16th
SEMIMONTH Half-month intervals of each
month
1st of each
MONTH Monthly intervals
month
1-Jan
1-Apr
QTR Quarterly (three-month) intervals
1-Jul
1-Oct
1-Jan
SEMIYEAR Semi-annual (six-month) intervals
1-Jul
YEAR Yearly intervals 1-Jan
SECOND Second intervals used with time values Seconds
MINUTE Minute intervals used with time values Minutes
HOUR Hourly intervals used with time values Hours
DTDAY Daily intervals used with datetime values Each day
Each
DTWEEK Weekly intervals of seven days used with datetime values
Sunday
Daily intervals with Friday-Saturday-Sunday counted as the
same day (five-day work week with a Saturday-Sunday
weekend.) days identifies the individual weekend days by
DTWEEKDAYdaysW Each day
number (1=Sunday ... 7=Saturday.) By default, days="17", so
the default interval is DTWEEKDAY17W. This interval is only
used with datetime values.
1st, 11th,
Ten-day intervals (a U.S. automobile industry convention) used
DTTENDAY and 21st of
with datetime values
each month
1st and 16th
DTSEMIMONTH Half-month intervals used with datetime values of each
month

24
 Default
Starting
Interval Name Definition Point

1st of each
DTMONTH Monthly intervals used with datetime values
month
1-Jan
1-Apr
DTQTR Quarterly (three-month) intervals used with datetime values
1-Jul
1-Oct
1-Jan
DTSEMIYEAR Semiannual (six-month) intervals used with datetime values
1-Jul
DTYEAR Yearly intervals used with datetime values 1-Jan
DTSECOND Second intervals used with datetime values Seconds
DTMINUTE Minute intervals used with datetime values Minutes
DTHOUR Hour intervals used with datetime values Hours

25