⨳ reading iso dates and datetimes ⨳

2009 May 06, Wednesday

a while ago, i posted a method of converting YYYYMMDD-style integers to sas date values. today, i needed to convert an YYYYMMDDHHMMSS-style integer to a sas date time value. i could have used the same method of conversion, but i though there had to be a better way. and there is.

apparently, these are ISO 8601-style date and datetime formats. so why not use the iso-related formats and informats for date and datetime values?

to import a YYYYMMDD-style integer into a sas date value, i use the ND8601DA. informat and apply the date9. format. YYYYMMDDHHMMSS-style integer into a sas datetime value, one can use the ND8601DT. informat and apply the datetime19. format.

for more info than i care to provide, you can see the corresponding help pages for SAS 9.1.3 and 9.2.