You can use the TODAY function in SAS to generate the current date.
The following examples show how to use the TODAY function in practice.
Example 1: Use TODAY Function to Generate Current Date (Without Formatting)
By default, the TODAY function generates the current date as a numeric SAS date value, which is the number of days since January 1, 1960:
/*create dataset that contains current date*/
data my_data;
today_date=today();
run;
/*view dataset*/
proc print data=my_data;
The TODAY function generated the value 23135.
Since this article is being written on May 5, 2023, this means it has been 23,135 days since January 1, 1960.
Example 2: Use TODAY Function to Generate Current Date (DDMMYY10. Formatting)
The following code shows how to use the TODAY function to generate the current date using DDMMYY10. formatting:
/*create dataset that contains current date*/
data my_data;
today_date=today();
format today_date ddmmyy10.;
put today_date;
run;
/*view dataset*/
proc print data=my_data;
The TODAY function generated the current date and the ddmmyy10. format option formatted it as 05/05/2023.
Example 3: Use TODAY Function to Generate Current Date (DATE9. Formatting)
The following code shows how to use the TODAY function to generate the current date using DATE9. formatting:
/*create dataset that contains current date*/
data my_data;
today_date=today();
format today_date date9.;
put today_date;
run;
/*view dataset*/
proc print data=my_data;
The TODAY function generated the current date and the date9. format option formatted it as 05MAY2023.
Note that in this tutorial we only illustrated a few ways of how to format a date.
Refer to the SAS documentation page for a complete list of date formats you can use.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in SAS:
How to Add Days to Date in SAS
How to Get Day of Week from Date in SAS
How to Calculate Difference Between Two Dates in SAS