In releases of SAS^® prior to SAS^® 9.2, you could create a null date constant by using two quotation marks with no space between them, as shown in the example code below:

data _null_;
   x=''d;
run;

Beginning in SAS 9.2, error messages like the following are generated when the same syntax is used to create a null date constant:

ERROR: Invalid date/time/datetime constant ''d.
ERROR 77-185: Invalid number conversion on ''d.

To circumvent the problem, place a space between the quotation marks.

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