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The MDY function in SAS is used to convert dates from numeric values to a SAS date value. This function takes three arguments: the month, day, and year of the date. The function then returns a SAS date value with the same month, day, and year from the arguments given. This function is useful for creating a SAS date value from a date that is stored as three separate numeric values.
You can use the MDY function in SAS to return a date value from month, day and year values.
This function uses the following syntax:
MDY(month, day, year)
where:
- month: Integer value for month from 1 to 12
- day: Integer value for day of the month from 1 to 31
- year: A two-digit or four-digit integer that represents the year
The following example shows how to use the MDY function in practice.
Example: How to Use the MDY Function in SAS
Suppose we have the following dataset in SAS that contains information about sales made on various dates at some retail store:
/*create dataset*/
data my_data;
input month day year sales;
datalines;
4 15 2022 94
6 17 2022 88
7 25 2022 90
8 14 2022 105
10 13 2022 119
12 15 2022 100
1 4 2023 87
3 15 2023 90
5 29 2023 130
;
run;
/*view dataset*/
proc print data=my_data;
The following code shows how to use the MDY function to create dates using the numeric values in the month, day and year columns:
/*create new dataset*/
data new_data;
set my_data;
date_numeric = mdy(month, day, year);
date_worddate = put(mdy(month, day, year), worddate.);
date_date9 = put(mdy(month, day, year), date9.);
date_mmddyy10 = put(mdy(month, day, year), mmddyy10.);
run;
/*view dataset*/
proc print data=new_data;
Notice that we used the MDY function to create four new columns that all contain dates in various formats.
Note #1: You can find a complete list of potential date formats in SAS .
Note #2: You can find the complete documentation for the SAS MDY function .