SAS 9.4 Language Reference, 3rd Edition

If you define a character variable and assign the result of a numeric expression to it, SAS

tries to convert the numeric result of the expression to a character value. SAS uses the

BESTw. format, where w is the width of the character variable and has a maximum

value of 32. SAS then tries to execute the statement. If the character variable that you

use is not long enough to contain a character representation of the number, SAS prints a

note to the log and assigns the character variable asterisks. If the value is too small, SAS

provides no error message and assigns the character variable the character zero (0).

Log 4.1 Automatic Variable Type Conversions (partial SAS log)

44 data _null_;

45 x= 3626885;

46 length y $ 4;

47 y=x;

48 put y;

49 run;

NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character

values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).

47:6

36E5

50 data _null_;

51 x1= 3626885;

52 length y1 $ 1;

53 y1=x1;

54 xs=0.000005;

55 length ys $ 1;

56 ys=xs;

57 put y1= ys=;

58 run;

NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character

values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).

53:7 56:7

NOTE: Invalid character data, x1=3626885.00 , at line 53 column 7.

y1=* ys=0

x1=3626885 y1=* xs=5E-6 ys=0 _ERROR_=1 _N_=1

NOTE: At least one W.D format was too small for the number to be printed. The

decimal may be shifted by the "BEST" format.

59 proc printto; run;

In the first DATA step of the example, SAS is able to fit the value of Y into a 4-byte

field by representing its value in scientific notation. In the second DATA step, SAS

cannot fit the value of Y1 into a 1-byte field and displays an asterisk (*) instead.

Aligning Variable Values in SAS Output

In SAS output, numeric variables are right-aligned and character values are left-aligned.

You can further control their alignment by using a format.

However, in SAS LISTING output, when you assign a character value in an assignment

statement, SAS stores the value as it appears in the statement and does not perform any

alignment. Output 4.1 on page 44 illustrates the character value alignment produced by

the following program:

ods listing;

options nodate;

data aircode;

input city $ 1-13 WAC 15-17;

Aligning Variable Values in SAS Output 43

length airport $ 30;

if city='San Francisco' then airport='SFO';

else if city='Paris' then airport='CDG';

else if city='New York' then airport='JFK';

else if city='Moscow' then airport='MOW';

else if city='Melbourne' then airport=' MEB';

datalines;

San Francisco 67

Paris 427

New York 67

Moscow 770

Melbourne 802

;

proc print data=aircode;

run;

ods listing close;

This example produces the following LISTING output:

Output 4.1 Character Variable Alignment in SAS Listing Output

In HTML output, when you assign a character value in an assignment statement, SAS

ignores the white space and left-aligns the characters as usual. The same example above

produces the following output in HTML:

Output 4.2 Character Variable Alignment in SAS HTML Output

44 Chapter 4 • SAS Variables