Reading Dates and Times by Using the ISO 860 Basic and Extended Notations

ISO 8601 Formatting Symbols

The following list explains the formatting symbols that are used to notate the ISO 8601 dates, time, datetime, durations, and interval values:

n: specifies a number that represents the number of years, months, or days

P: indicates that the duration that follows is specified by the number of years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds

T: indicates that a time value follows. Any value with a time must begin with T.

Requirement:Time values that are read by the extended notation informats that begin with the characters E8601 must use an uppercase T.

W: indicates that the duration is specified in weeks.

Z: indicates that the time value is the time in Greenwich, England, or UTC time.

+|-: the + indicates the time zone offset to the east of Greenwich, England. The - indicates the time zone offset to the west of Greenwich, England.

yyyy: specifies a four-digit year

mm: as part of a date, specifies a two-digit month, 01–12

dd: specifies a two-digit day, 01–1

hh: specifies a two-digit hour, 00–24

mm: as part of a time, specifies a two-digit minute, 00–59

ss: specifies a two-digit second, 00–59

fff | ffffff

specifies an optional fraction of a second using the digits 0–9:

fff	use 1 - 3 digits for values read by the $N8601B informat and the $N8601E informat
ffffff	use 1 - 6 digits for informat other than the $N8601B informat and the $N8601E informat

Y: indicates that a year value proceeds this character in a duration

M: as part of a date, indicates that a month value proceeds this character in a duration

D: indicates that a day value proceeds this character in a duration

H: indicates that an hour value proceeds this character in a duration

M: as part of a time, indicates that a minute value proceeds this character in a duration

S: indicates that a seconds value proceeds this character in a duration

Reading ISO 8601 Date, Time, and Datetime Values

SAS reads ISO 8601 dates, times, and datetimes using various informats, and the resulting values are SAS date, time, or datetime values. The following table shows different date, time, and datetime forms and the informats that you use to read them:

Date, Time, or Datetime	ISO 8601 Notation	Example	Informat
Basic Notations
Date	YYYYMMDD	20120915	B8601DAw.
Time	hhmmssnnnnnn	155300322348	B8601TMw.d
Time with time zone	hhmmss+\|-hhmm	155300+0500	B8601TZw.d
	hhmmssZ	155300Z	B8601TZw.d
Convert to local time with time zone	hhmmss+\|-hhmm	155300+0500	B8601TZw.d
Datetime	YYYYMMDDThhmmssnnnnnn	20120915T155300	B8601DTw.d
Datetime with timezone	YYYYMMDDThhmmss+\|-hhmm	20120915T155300+0500	B8601DZw.d
	YYYYMMDDThhmmssZ	20120915T155300Z	B8601DZw.d
Read the date from a datetime	YYYYMMD	20120915	B8601DNw.
Extended Notations
Date	YYYY-MM-DD	2012-09-15	E8601DAw.
Time	hh:mm:ss.nnnnnn	15:53:00.322348	E8601TMw.d
Time with time zone	hh:mm:ss.nnnnnn+\|-hh:mm	15:53:00+05:00	E8601TZw.d
Convert to local time with time zone	hh:mm:ss.nnnnnn+\|-hh:mm	15:53:00+05:00	E8601LZw.d
Datetime	YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.nnnnnn	2012-09-15T15:53:00	E8601DTw.d
Datetime with time zone	YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.nnnnnn+\|-hh:mm	2012-09-15T15:53:00+05:00	E8601DZw.d
Read date from a datetime	YYYY-MM-DD	2012-09-15	E8601DNw.

When SAS reads an ISO 8601 value that specifies a time zone offset (+|-hh:mm or +|-hhmm), the time or datetime value is adjusted to account for the offset. A SAS time or datetime value for an ISO 8601 value with a time zone offset is the time or datetime for the zero meridian (Greenwich, England). For example, if SAS reads the datetime 2011–09–15T15:53:00+05:00 using the E8601DZ informat, the datetime value 1631703180 has been adjusted for the five hour time zone difference. This datetime value is the datetime value for the zero meridian. If you write this value using the E8601DZ format, the value is 2011–09–15T10:53:00+00:00. The hour specified after the T shows the five hour adjustment.

Reading ISO 8601 Duration, Interval, and Datetime Values

Informats That Read Duration, Interval, and Datetime Values

SAS uses two informats that reads ISO datetime, duration, and interval values.

$N8601B informat

reads duration, interval, and datetime values that are specified in either the basic notation or the extended notation

$N8601E informat

reads duration, interval, and datetime values that are specified only in the extended notation

Use the $N8601E informat when you want to make sure that you are in compliance with the extended notation.

The datetime values that are read by these informats result in a SAS character representation. If you want a datetime value to be read as a numeric value, use the B8601DT informat, the B8601DZ informat, the E8601DT informat, or the E8601DZ informat.

Complete Duration, Interval, and Datetime Notations

The following table shows the formatting of duration, datetime, and interval values that can be read in the complete form:

Complete Component Forms

Time Component	ISO 8601 Notation	Example
Duration - Basic Notation	PYYYYMMDDThhmmss	P20120915T155300
	-PYYYYMMDDThhmmss	-P20080915T155300
Duration - Extended Notation	PYYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss	P2012-09-15T15:53:00
	-PYYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss	-P2012-09-15T15:53:00
Duration - Basic and Extended Notation	PnYnMnDTnHnMnS	P2y10m14dT20h13m45s
	-PnYnMnDTnHnMnS	-P2n10m14dT20h13m45s
	PnW (weeks)	P6w
Interval - Basic Notation	YYYYMMDDThhmmss/YYYYMMDDThhmmss	20120915T155300/20141113T000000
	PnYnMnDTnHnMnS/YYYYMMDDThhmmss	P2y10M14dT20h13m45s/20120915T155300
	YYYYMMDDThhmmss/PnYnMnDTnHnMnS	20120915T155300/P2y10M14dT20h13m45s
Interval- Extended Notation	YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss/YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss	2012-09-15T15:53:00/2014-11-13T00:00:00
	PnYnMnDTnHnMnS/YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss	P2y10M14dT20h13m45s/2012-09-15T15:53:00
	YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss/PnYnMnDTnHnMnS	2012-09-15T15:53:00/P2y10M14dT20h13m45s
Datetime-Basic Notation	YYYYMMDDThhmmss.fff+\|-hhmm	20120915T155300
	(all blank)
Datetime-Extended Notation	YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.fff+\|-hhmm	2012-09-15T15:53:00 +04:30
	(all blank)

Reading Omitted Components

One or more date or time components can be omitted from a datetime value or a duration value that is in the form Pyyyymmdd. SAS reads omitted components using the $N8601B informat or the $N8601E informat, and the omitted component must be represented by a hyphen ( - ).

The following examples show duration, datetime, and interval values with omitted components:

p0003-02--T10:31:33

The omitted component is the number of days.

-p0003-02-02T-:31:33

The omitted component is the number of hours.

x-09-15T15:x:x

The omitted components are the number of years, minutes, and seconds.

2012-09-15T15:x:00/2010-09-15T15:x:00

The omitted components are the minutes.

When reading values that contain a time zone offset, omitted components are not allowed. Use 00 in place of omitted components.

Truncated Values

SAS reads truncated duration, datetime, and interval values, where one or more lower order components is truncated because the value is 0 or the value is not significant.

The following list shows examples of truncated values:

p00030202T1031
2012-09-15T15/2014-09-15T15:53
-p0003-03-03T-:-:-
P2y3m4dT5h6m
2012-09-xTx:x:x
2012

When reading values that contain a time zone offset, truncation is not allowed. Use 00 in place of truncated values.

Normalizing Duration Components

When a value for a duration component is greater than the largest standard value for a component, SAS normalizes the component except when the duration component is a single component. The following table shows examples of normalized duration components:

Duration	Extended Normalized Duration
p3y13m	p0004-01
pt24h24m65s	P----01T-:25:05
p3y13mT24h61m	P0004-01-01T01:01
p0004-13	p0005-01
p0003-02-61T15:61:61	P0003-04-01T16:02:01
p13m	P13M

If a component contains the largest value, such as 60 for minutes or seconds, SAS normalizes the value and replaces the value with a hyphen. For example, pT12:60:13 becomes PT13:-:13.

Thirty days is used to normalize a month.

Dates and times in a datetime value that are greater than the standard value for the component are not normalized. They produce an error.

Fractions in Durations, Datetime, and Interval Values

Ending components can contain a fraction that consists of a period or a comma, followed by one to three digits. The following examples show the use of fractions in duration, datetime, and interval values:

201209.5
P2012-09-15T10.33
2012-09-15/P0003-03-03,333