Date:         Tue, 30 Mar 2004 11:15:23 -0500
Reply-To:     Gerhard Hellriegel <ghellrieg@T-ONLINE.DE>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Gerhard Hellriegel <ghellrieg@T-ONLINE.DE>
Subject:      Re: Alternative methods to create a month variable

wouldn't it be easier to cut the first 4 chars of TRANS_DT and add a "20" in
front of that?

TRANS_MO="20"!!substr(TRANS_DT,1,4);

??



On Tue, 30 Mar 2004 11:03:38 -0500, Lu Liu <Lu.Liu@TALBOTS.COM> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I am creating a transaction month variable (TRANS_MO) from transaction date
>(TRANS_DT).  Please note both variables are not in DATE but STRING format.
>Since there are 1 1/2 years data, I need to do the IF/ELSE IF statement 18
>times.  I just wonder whether there is a better way to code this.
>
>
>DATA ALLTRANS;
>  SET ALLTRANS;
>  LENGTH TRANS_MO $6;
>  IF       TRANS_DT >= '021001' AND TRANS_DT <= '021031'
>                                             THEN TRANS_MO = '200210';
>   ELSE IF TRANS_DT >= '021101' AND TRANS_DT <= '021130'
>                                             THEN TRANS_MO = '200211';
>   ELSE IF TRANS_DT >= '021201' AND TRANS_DT <= '021231'
>                                             THEN TRANS_MO = '200212';
>   ELSE IF TRANS_DT >= '030101' AND TRANS_DT <= '030131'
>                                             THEN TRANS_MO = '200301';
>   ELSE IF TRANS_DT >= '030201' AND TRANS_DT <= '030228'
>                                             THEN TRANS_MO = '200302';
>   ELSE IF TRANS_DT >= '030301' AND TRANS_DT <= '030331'
>                                             THEN TRANS_MO = '200303';
>   ELSE IF TRANS_DT >= '030401' AND TRANS_DT <= '030430'
>                                             THEN TRANS_MO = '200304';
>
>(and more till TRANS_MO = '200403')
>
>Thank you very much for your suggestions.
>
>Lu