Using Formats to Check for Invalid Values
Another way to check for invalid values of a character variable from raw data is to use user-defined formats. There are several possibilities here. One, you can create a format that leaves all valid character values as is and formats all invalid values to a single error code. Let’s start out with a program that simply assigns formats to the character variables and uses PROC FREQ to list the number of valid and invalid codes. Following that, you will extend the program by using a DATA step to identify which ID’s have invalid values. Program 1-6 uses formats to convert all invalid data values to a single value.
Program 1-6. Using a User-Defined Format and PROC FREQ to List Invalid Data Values
PROC FORMAT; ... |
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