1. Creating the Date Dimension
Using SQL and SAS to process dates.

2. Base E-R Diagram

3. Create DateSurrogates Index
CREATE TABLE DateSurrogates
(OrderDate Date
CONSTRAINT pk PRIMARY KEY,
Surrogate AUTOINCREMENT,
DateKey Integer);

4. Create Date Key INSERT INTO DateSurrogates (OrderDate)
SELECT DISTINCT OrderDate
FROM OrdersCopy
WHERE OrderDate
NOT IN (SELECT OrderDate FROM DateSurrogates);

5. Update DateKey UPDATE DateSurrogates SET DateKey = Surrogate
WHERE DateKey IS Null;

6. DateSurrogatesTable DateSurrogates: OrderDate Date/Time
Surrogate Autoincrement
DateKey Integer

7. Importing Into SAS PROC IMPORT OUT= WORK.CUSTOMER
DATATABLE= "DateSurrogates“
DBMS=ACCESS2000 REPLACE;
DATABASE="C:\DataWarehousing04s\ETL\PremiereExtractExample.mdb";
RUN;

8. Results of Proc Contents
----Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes-----
# Variable Type Len Pos Format Informat Label
3 DateKey Num DateKey
1 OrderDate Num DATETIME20. DATETIME OrderDate
2 Surrogate Num Surrogate

9. SAS Date and Time Functions and Formats
SAS has a number of useful functions for working with dates and times. Their options depend on the data type of the variable.
DATETIME stores both the date and time
DATE stores date information (in days from January 1, 1960)
TIME stores time information (in seconds.fraction)

10. Functions Functions take values and convert the way the data is stored
Function Use
Datapart Takes a datetime attribute, extracts the date part and stores it as a date attribute
Timepart Takes a datetime attribute, extracts the time part and stores it as a Time attribute

11. Functions Function Use Use Put(attribute, format)
Input(attribute, informat)
Use
Returns a (character) value using a specified format.
Returns the value produced when a SAS expression is read using a specified informat.

12. Formats and Informats
Formats determine how a variable is displayed; informats determine how a variable id read. The tend to be similar.
FORMATNAMEw.d
Formats and Informats always contain a period (.)
SAS makes assumptions about the best display for a given w.d specification

13. Some Useful Formats YEARw. MONNAMEw. DOWNAMEw. QTRw. JULDAYw.
Writes date values as the year
Writes date values as the quarter of the year
Writes data values as the the name of the day of the week
writes dates as the Julian day of the year (yyddd). For w=3 the output is ddd.