Converting YYYYMMDD-Type Integer to SAS Date Values

if you’ve got date keys (e.g., 20071221) that you need to convert to sas date values (21DEC2007), you may run into some troubles.

you might be tempted to simply use an informat to read in the integer value as a date value. for example, input(int_val, yymmdd8.). but your log will get peppered with error notes:

NOTE: Invalid argument to function INPUT at line xxx column yyy.

the trick is to first convert the numeric value into a character value then back to a numeric value with a date informat.

input program

data _null_;
    input int_val;
    date_val = input(put(int_val, 8.), yymmdd8.);
    put int_val
    @10 date_val date9.
    @20 date_val 6.;
datalines;
20071221
19600102
19600101
19591231
run;

log snippet

20071221 21DEC2007  17521
19600102 02JAN1960      1
19600101 01JAN1960      0
19591231 31DEC1959     -1