The dataDiscovery.profile CAS action is capable of identifying the actual type of data that is stored in a string field. The logic identifies string fields as one of the following actual types that are based on the contents of the string:

• date
• Boolean
• integer
• real
• generic string

The logic to identify strings as the actual type date correctly handles up to four digits of precision in the millisecond field. However, it is possible for there to be more than four digits of precision in a datetime string. The results are unpredictable when the milliseconds portion of the datetime string contains more than four digits of precision. Datetime strings that contain more than four digits of precision in the milliseconds portion might be identified as either a generic string or as a date. The expected classification is the actual type date for any string that can be recognized as a date. As a result, incorrect output is returned in the dataDiscovery.profile CAS action result set. The incorrect results might also occur in the profile report in SAS Data Explorer.

Workaround

To circumvent the issue, you can format dates with four or fewer digits of precision in the milliseconds portion of the datetime string.

Click the Hot Fix tab in this note for a link to instructions about accessing and applying the software update.

Operating System and Release Information

Viya on Linux: An update for this issue is available for SAS Viya 3.5. For instructions on how to access and apply software updates, see the Updating Your SAS Viya software section in the SAS Viya 3.5 for Linux Deployment Guide at