Step-by-Step Programming with Base SAS 9.4

Reading Data That Is Aligned in Columns

Understanding Column Input

With column input, data values occupy the same fields within each data record. When you use column input in the INPUT statement, list the variable names and specify column positions that identify the location of the corresponding data fields. You can use column input when your raw data is in fixed columns and does not require the use of informats to be read.

Program: Reading Data Aligned in Columns

The following program also uses the health and fitness club data, but now two more data values are missing. The data is aligned in columns and SAS reads the data with column input:

data club1;
   input IdNumber 1-4 Name $ 6-11 Team $ 13-18 StartWeight 20-22
         EndWeight 24-26; datalines; ...