Formats

Working with Dates and Times Using the ISO 8601 Basic and Extended Notations

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

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

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

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.

indicates that the duration is specified in weeks.

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

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

specifies a two-digit day, 01 - 31

specifies a two-digit hour, 00 - 24

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

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

indicates that a year value proceeds this character in a duration

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

indicates that a day value proceeds this character in a duration

indicates that an hour value proceeds this character in a duration

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

indicates that a seconds value proceeds this character in a duration

Writing ISO 8601 Date, Time, and Datetime Values

SAS uses the formats in the following table to write date, time, and datetime values in the ISO 8601 basic and extended notations from SAS date, time, and datetime values.

Formats for Writing ISO 8601 Dates, Times, and Datetimes
Date, Time, or Datetime	ISO 8601 Notation	Example	Format
Basic Notations
Date	yyyymmdd	20080915	B8601DAw.
Time	hhmmssffffff	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	B8601LZw.d
Datetime	yyyymmddThhmmssffffff	20080915T155300	B8601DTw.d
Datetime with timezone	yyyymmddThhmmss+\|-hhmm	20080915T155300+0500	B8601DZw.d
	yyyymmddThhmmssZ	20080915T155300Z	B8601DZw.d
Write the date from a datetime	yyyymmdd	20080915	B8601DNw.
Extended Notations
Date	yyyy-mm-dd	2008-09-15	E8601DAw.
Time	hh:mm:ss.ffffff	15:53:00.322348	E8601TMw.d
Time with time zone	hh:mm:ss.ffffff+\|-hh:mm	15:53:00+05:00	E8601TZw.d
Convert to local time with time zone	hh:mm:ss.ffffff+\|-hh:mm	15:53:00+05:00	E8601LZw.d
Datetime	yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.ffffff	2008-09-15T15:53:00	E8601DTw.d
Datetime with time zone	yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.nnnnnn+\|-hh:mm	2008-09-15T15:53:00+05:00	E8601DZw.d
Write the date from a datetime	yyyy-mm-dd	2008-09-15	E8601DNw.

An asterisk ( * ) used in place of a date or time formatted value that is out-of-range.

Writing ISO 8601 Duration, Datetime, and Interval Values

Duration, Datetime, and Interval Formats

SAS writes duration, datetime, and interval values from character data using these formats:

Time Component	ISO 8601 Notation	Example	Format
Duration - Basic Notation	PyyyymmddThhmmssfff	P20080915T155300	$N8601BA
	-PyyyymmddThhmmssfff	-P20080915T155300	$N8601BA
Duration - Extended Notation	Pyyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.fff	P2008-09-15T15:53:00	$N8601EA
	-Pyyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.fff	-P2008-09-15T15:53:00	$N8601EA
Duration - Basic and Extended Notation	PnYnMnDTnHnMnS	P2y10m14dT20h13m45s	$N8601B $N8601E
	-PnYnMnDTnHnMnS	-P2y10m14dT20h13m45s	$N8601B $N8601E
	PnW (weeks)	P6w	$N8601B $N8601E
Interval - Basic Notation	yyyymmddThhmmssfff/yyyymmddThhmmssfff	20080915T155300/20101113T000000	$N8601BA
	PnYnMnDTnHnMnS/yyyymmddThhmmssfff	P2y10M14dT20h13m45s/20080915T155300	$N8601B
	yyyymmddThhmmssfff/PnYnMnDTnHnMnS	20080915T155300/P2y10M14dT20h13m45s	$N8601BA
Interval- Extended Notation	yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.fff/yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.fff	2008-09-15T15:53:00/2010-11-13T00:00:00	$N8601EA
	PnYnMnDTnHnMnS/yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.fff	P2y10M14dT20h13m45s/2008-09-15T15:53:00	$N8601E
	yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.fff/PnYnMnDTnHnMnS	2008-09-15T15:53:00/P2y10M14dT20h13m45s	$N8601EA
Datetime-Basic Notation	yyyymmddThhmmss.fff+\|-hhmm	20080915T155300	$N8601BA
	(all blank)		$N8601B $N8601BA $N8601E $N8601EA
Datetime-Extended Notation	yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.fff+\|-hhmm	2008-09-15T15:53:00 +04:30	$N8601EA
	(all blank)		$N8601B $N8601BA $N8601E $N8601EA

Writing Omitted Components

An omitted component can be represented by a hyphen ( - ) or an x in the extended datetime form yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss and in the extended duration form Pyyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.

Omitted components in the durations form PnYnMnDTnHnMnS are dropped, they do not contain a hyphen or x. For example, P2mT4H.

The following formats write omitted components that use the hyphen and the x:

Format	Datetime Form	Duration Form	Examples
$N8601H	yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss	PnYnMnDTnHnMnS	--09-15T15:-:53 P2Y2DT4H5M6S/--09-15T15:-:00
$N8601EH	yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss	Pyyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss	P000---02T02:55:20/2008---15T-:-:45
$N8601X	yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss	PnYnMnDTnHnMnS	P2Y2DT4H5M6S/x-09-15T15:x:00
$N8601EX	yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss	Pyyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss	P0003-x-02T02:55:20/2008-x-15Tx:x:45

Datetime values with omitted components that are formatted with either the $N8601B format or the $N8601BA format are formatted in the extended notation using the hyphen for omitted components to ensure accurate data. For example, when the month is an omitted component, the value 2008---15 is written and not 2008-15.

The extended notation with hyphens is also used in place of the basic notation if a duration is formatted by using the $N8601BA format. Using the same date, P2008---15 is written and not P2008-15.

Writing Truncated Duration, Datetime, and Interval Values

Duration, datetime, or interval values can be truncated when one or more lower order values is 0 or is not significant. When SAS writes a truncated value using the formats $N8601B, $N8601BA, $N8601E, and $N8601EA, the display of the value stops at the last non-missing component.

When you format a truncated value by using either the $N8601H format or the $N8601EH format, the lower order components are written with a hyphen. When you format a truncated value by using the $N8601X format or the $N8601EX format, the lower order components are written with an x.

The following examples show truncated values:

	p00030202T1031
	2008-09-15T15/2010-09-15T15:53
	-p0003-03-03T-:-:-
	P2y3m4dT5h6m
	2008-09-xTx:x:x
	2008

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:

	200809.5
	P2008-09-15T10.33
	2008-09-15/P0003-03-03,333

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