Maximum value for a SAS date column

Question

I have a SAS dataset saty Base1 which has a date column Activity_Date. I want to get the max of the Activity_Date in the SAS dataset. When I checked the frequency of the Activity_Date column values appear as below:

PROC FREQ DATA=Base1; TABLES Activity_Date/ LIST MISSING; RUN;

/*Activity_Date Frequency
02APR2023      5
03APR2023      5
13APR2023      5*/

PROC SQL;
SELECT MAX(Activity_Date) AS Max_ActivityDt FROM Base1; QUIT;
/* Max_ActivityDt   23113*/

I tried changing the format of the date:

DATA Base2; SET Base1; FORMAT Max_ActivityDt e8601dt.; RUN;

This returns the value: 1960-01-01T06:25:13

Answer 1

Your idea to use a format is correct, but e8601dt is a date-time format, not a date format. You can assign a format in the SQL step:

data have ;
  Activity_Date=today() ;
run ;

proc sql ;
  create table want as
  select max(Activity_Date) as Max_ActivityDt format=date9.
  from have
 ;
quit ;