You can use the TODAY function in SAS to generate the current date.

The following examples show how to use the TODAY function in practice.

Example 1: Use TODAY Function to Generate Current Date (Without Formatting)

By default, the TODAY function generates the current date as a numeric SAS date value, which is the number of days since January 1, 1960:

/*create dataset that contains current date*/
data my_data;
    today_date=today();
run;

/*view dataset*/
proc printdata=my_data;

The TODAY function generated the value 23135.

Since this article is being written on May 5, 2023, this means it has been 23,135 days since January 1, 1960.

Example 2: Use TODAY Function to Generate Current Date (DDMMYY10. Formatting)

The following code shows how to use the TODAY function to generate the current date using DDMMYY10. formatting:

/*create dataset that contains current date*/
data my_data;
    today_date=today();
    format today_date ddmmyy10.;
    put today_date;
run;

/*view dataset*/
proc printdata=my_data;

The TODAY function generated the current date and the ddmmyy10. format option formatted it as 05/05/2023.

Example 3: Use TODAY Function to Generate Current Date (DATE9. Formatting)

The following code shows how to use the TODAY function to generate the current date using DATE9. formatting:

/*create dataset that contains current date*/
data my_data;
    today_date=today();
    format today_date date9.;
    put today_date;
run;

/*view dataset*/
proc printdata=my_data;

Note that in this tutorial we only illustrated a few ways of how to format a date.

Refer to the for a complete list of date formats you can use.

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in SAS: