docs.datacontroller.io/docs/dcc-dates.md

Data Controller for SAS® - Dates & Datetimes

Overview

Dates & datetimes are stored as plain numerics in regular SAS tables. In order for the Data Controller to recognise these values as dates / datetimes a format must be applied.

Supported date formats:

• DATE.
• DDMMYY.
• MMDDYY.
• YYMMDD.
• E8601DA.
• B8601DA.
• NLDATE.

Supported datetime formats:

• DATETIME.
• NLDATM.

Supported time formats:

• TIME.
• HHMM.

In SAS 9, this format must also be present / updated in the metadata view of the (physical) table to be displayed properly. This can be done using DI Studio, or by running the following (template) code:

proc metalib;
  omr (library="Your Library");
  folder="/Shared Data/table storage location";
  update_rule=(delete);
run;

!!! note Data Controller does not support decimals when EDITING. For datetimes, this means that values must be rounded to 1 second (milliseconds are not supported).

In the LOAD screen these dates display as ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD, HH:mm:ss, YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss) regardless of the user's locale. This guarantees:

• Consistent CSV / Excel exports across geographies
• Predictable copy / paste between cells and into external tools
• No more 1/2/2026 vs 2/1/2026 ambiguity at edit time

If you need a locale-specific display (eg DD/MM/YYYY) on a per-column basis, use the new NUMBER_FORMAT rule with an Intl.DateTimeFormat-compatible JSON value.

If you have other dates / datetimes / times you would like us to support, do get in touch!