CONTENT Statement

Specifies a SAS date format or length.

Type: Optional statement
Applies to: access descriptor or view descriptor

Syntax

CONTENT <"> column-identifier-1<"> <=> SAS-date-format | length
<...<"> column-identifier-n<"> <=> SAS-date-format | length> ;

Details

The CONTENT statement enables you to specify a SAS date format or column length for a CA-Datacom/DB nondate field. A date format means that the CA-Datacom/DB data has the specified representation. The column length determines the number of characters to be accessed.
SAS stores datetime values as the number of days and seconds before and after January 1, 1960. Entering a SAS date format or column length automatically changes the default values for SAS formats and informats. However, if you have previously changed any format or informat values, specifying a CONTENT value does not change those values. Four date formats are used:
  • YYMMDDw. where w is 6 for two-digit years or 8 for four-digit years
  • MMDDYYw. where w is 6 for two-digit years or 8 for four-digit years
  • DDMMYYw. where w is 6 for two-digit years or 8 for four-digit years
  • JULIANw. where w is 5 for two-digit years or 7 for four-digit years.
The column-identifier argument can be either the CA-Datacom/DB field name or the positional equivalent from the LIST statement, which is the number that represents the column's place in the access descriptor. If the column contains special characters or national characters, enclose the name in quotation marks.
If you specify ASSIGN=YES when you create an access descriptor, you cannot change the value for this statement when you later create a view descriptor based on that access descriptor. You do not have to issue a SELECT statement for DBMS columns that are named in the CONTENT statement.
SAS supports the CA-Datacom/DB SQL types SQL-DATE, SQL-TIME, and SQL-STMP as binary data. (See ACCESS Procedure Data Conversions for more information about the default formats that the ACCESS procedure assigns to these DBMS data types.)