Determining temporal spans within SAS involves utilizing functions like INTCK and YRDIFF to compute durations between two dates, often birthdate and a reference date. For instance, calculating the difference in years between ’01JAN1980’d and ’01JAN2024’d would provide an age of 44 years. This functionality allows for precise age determination, accommodating different time units like days, months, or years.
Accurate age computation is essential for various analytical tasks, including demographic analysis, clinical research, and actuarial studies. Historically, these calculations were performed manually, introducing potential errors. The introduction of specialized functions within SAS streamlined this process, ensuring precision and efficiency. This capacity allows researchers to accurately categorize subjects, analyze age-related trends, and model time-dependent phenomena. The ability to precisely define cohorts based on age is critical for generating valid and meaningful results.