Scripting Guide - SAS

Chapter 6 Types of Data 109
Date-Time Functions and Formats
Tip: For descriptions of all date-time functions and their arguments, see “Date and Time Functions” on
page 591 in the “JSL Syntax Reference” appendix.
Date-Time Values
Date-time values are stored and calculated as the number of seconds since midnight, January 1, 1904. For
example:
Today(); // returns 3388649872 on May 19, 2011 at 12:00:00 AM
As with Today(), the Date DMY() and Date MDY() functions also return month, day, and year
arguments as seconds. For example, if it were 12:00:00 a.m. on May 19, 2011, all of the following
statements would return the same value:
Date DMY(19,5,2011);
Date MDY(5,19,2011);
Today();
3388608000
The As Date() function takes the number of seconds and displays it as a date.
As Date(3388608000);
19May2011
You can use date-time values in two ways:
• a literal value, for example 19May2011:10:10
• a string, for example "Thursday, May 19, 2011"
You can perform arithmetic with date-time literals, which use the number of seconds as the base number.
As Date( 19May2011 + 1 );
19May2011:00:00:01
Program with Date-Time Functions
Table 6.2 shows functions that convert seconds into date-time values and date-time values into seconds.
Table 6.2 Date-Time Functions
Function
Abbrev Date(date)
Explanation
Returns a string representation for the date supplied. The format is based
on your computer’s regional setting. So for the English (United States)
locale, the date is formatted like "02/29/2004". Even if you are running
JMP in English with a different locale, the locale format is applied.