Record Formats
The record format of an external file
might affect how data is read with column input and formatted
input. A record format specifies how records are organized in a
file. Two common record formats are fixed-length records and
variable-length records.
Fixed-Length Records
External files that have a fixed-length record format have an
end-of-record marker after a predetermined number of columns. A
typical record length is 80 columns.
Variable-Length Records
Files that have a variable-length record format have an
end-of-record marker after the last field in each record.
As
you can see, the length of each record varies.
Get SAS Certification Prep Guide: Base Programming for SAS 9, Third Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
