How can I fix my where clause in SAS

Question

I have a table is SAS say t looking like this

A           B                   C       D
--------------------------------------------------------------
VOLUME      172631922966528     IMPLIED 2012-10-04
VOLUME      173731441803264     IMPLIED 2012-10-04
PRIX_VOLUME 189124634214400     IMPLIED 2012-10-04
PRIX_VOLUME 123153895784448     IMPLIED 2012-10-04
VOLUME      266090408574976     IMPLIED 2012-10-04
VOLUME      119855364243456     IMPLIED 2012-10-04

The column D is a Date (format yymmdd10 ) colume and I have a macrovarible date0 that is worth 2012-10-04 I am trying to do a trivial data-step

data test;
    set t (where=(A eq "VOLUME" and D eq &date0.));
run;

but this is not working

Can you help fix it ?

Answer 1

That is because when the macro variable is processed, you get:

data test;
    set t (where=(A eq "VOLUME" and D eq 2012-10-04));
run;

Which SAS will resolve as: data test; set t (where=(A eq "VOLUME" and D eq 1998)); run; Because it sees math instead of a date. You need to make clear to SAS that:
1. it is not algebra.
2. it should read it as a date.

To make it read it as a string, add quotes. To make clear that the string represents a date, append ad after the quotes:

data test;
    set t (where=(A eq "VOLUME" and D eq "&date0."d));
run;

That should do the trick.