LIBNAME Statement: PC Files on Microsoft Windows

SASDATEFMT

Changes the SAS date format of a data source column.

Valid in:	DATA and PROC steps (when accessing PC files data using SAS/ACCESS software)
Default value:	none

Syntax
Syntax Description
Details

Syntax

SASDATEFMT=(<data-source-date-column-1>=SAS date-format ...<data-source-date-column-n>=SAS date-format)

Syntax Description

data-source date-column

specifies the name of a date column in a data source table.

SAS date-format

specifies a SAS date format that has an equivalent, like-named informat.

EXAMPLE: DATETIME21.2 is both a SAS format and a SAS informat. It is a valid value for the SAS date-format argument.

Details

If the date format of a SAS column does not match the date format of the corresponding data source column, use the SASDATEFMT= option to convert date values. The SASDATEFMT= option enables you to convert date values from the default SAS date format to the SAS date format that you specify.

Use the SASDATEFMT= option to prevent date type mismatches under these circumstances:

during input operations to convert data source date values to the correct SAS DATE, TIME, or DATETIME values
during output operations to convert SAS DATE, TIME, or DATETIME values to the correct data source date values

Default: The default SAS date format is data source-specific and is determined by the data type of the data source column.

Note: If the SAS date format and the data source date format match, this option is not needed.

See: The documentation for your SAS/ACCESS interface.

Note: For non-English date types, SAS converts the data to the SAS type of NUMBER. The SASDATEFMT option does not currently handle these date types. A PROC SQL view to convert the data source data to a SAS date format can be used. This can be done when retrieving data, or use a format statement in other contexts. [cautionend]

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