General form, values read with TIMEw. informat: hh:mm:ss.ss where hh is an integer from 00 to 23, representing the hour mm is an integer from 00 to 59, representing the minute ss.ss is an optional field representing seconds and hundredths of seconds.

If you do not enter a value for ss.ss, a value of zero is assumed. Here are some examples of time expressions that you can read using the TIMEw. informat:

Time Expression	SAS Time Informat
17:00:01.34	TIME11.
17:00	TIME5.
2:34	TIME5.

Notice the last example. The field is only 4 columns wide, but a w value of 5 is specified. Five is the minimum acceptable field width for the TIMEw. informat. If you specify a w value less than 5, you'll receive the following error message in the SAS log:

SAS Log

ERROR 29 - 85: Width specified for format                TIME is invalid.