sas ONLY has 2 types of variables 1)num 2)char  .

A sas DATE variable should be a num variable with integer values.  Jan 1, 1960 is defined 0 in sas. sas has a YEAR function which maps a sas date into year. See example below.

HTH


7    data _null_;
8       do date=-5 to 5;
9           year=year(date);
10          PUT DATE= DATE= YYMMDD10. YEAR=;
11       END;
12   RUN;

date=-5 date=1959-12-27 year=1959
date=-4 date=1959-12-28 year=1959
date=-3 date=1959-12-29 year=1959
date=-2 date=1959-12-30 year=1959
date=-1 date=1959-12-31 year=1959
date=0 date=1960-01-01 year=1960
date=1 date=1960-01-02 year=1960
date=2 date=1960-01-03 year=1960
date=3 date=1960-01-04 year=1960
date=4 date=1960-01-05 year=1960
date=5 date=1960-01-06 year=1960