ARCHIVED: In SPSS, how can I calculate the number of days between two variables in Date format?

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In SPSS, to calculate the number of days between two variables in Date format, consider the following example:

Suppose you have two variables, formatted as date1 = mm/dd/yyyy and date2 = mm/dd/yyyy. To calculate the number of days between date1 and date2, use the following SPSS code:

  COMPUTE days = CTIME.DAYS(date2 - date1) .
  EXECUTE .

A new variable (days) will be created, which holds the number of days between date1 and date2. If the date in date1 is after the date in date2, the value in the variable days will be a negative number.

Note: You can format variables using other date formats defined in SPSS (e.g., mm/dd/yy [12/31/99], dd.mm.yyyy [31.12.1999], dd-mm-yyyy [31-DEC-1999]).

If you have questions about using statistical and mathematical software at Indiana University, contact the UITS Research Applications and Deep Learning team.