topic Re: Left justifying or left aligning values of a variable in a data set in New SAS User

Left justifying or left aligning values of a variable in a data set

Primavera — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 01:19:31 GMT

Hi all,

I am trying to use a special SAS code. In order to use it I have to have a data set with 2 variables ID and PCODE. ID is $12 and PCODE is a $6. I am importing this data set from a csv file using proc import. The csv file looks like this:

pcode	id
T0B3M2	724806
T0L0K0	2241906
T0K2S0	2559858
T1M0B1	3115006
T6L4S4	4527226
T5R1E9	6093226
T2A6K3	6927026
T8V7G7	7186848
T7S1N9	8380906
T0L1R0	9075136
T0E2M0	9232706
T0H3C0	10004336
T5X1G5	10106718
T8L5G3	10682226
T8A1R5	13721906
T3E7C4	15817336

However, I am unable to make the main SAS code that is supposed to use this data set as input to work. Someone has suggested that I should make the ID values left-justified. Aren't all the character values in SAS automatically left-justified? If not how can I left-justify them? I have attached the data set that I have made from the csv file here. BTW, I am using SAS 9.4.

Many thanks,

Re: Left justifying or left aligning values of a variable in a data set

Shmuel — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 04:38:59 GMT

Internal sas datasets' structure is different per OS, so posting a sas dataset doesn'n help much.

Char-type variables which are imported by PROC IMPORT are left justified.

Check by PROC CONTENTS is PCODE realy a char-type or numeric.

Please explain what issue you have because of justification, what code

you try to run and what are the results v.s. the expected results.

Re: Left justifying or left aligning values of a variable in a data set

ballardw — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 04:39:18 GMT

It will depend on how a variable is created whether it will have leading spaces or not. Proc Import is not very bright. Look in your CSV file and see if the ID values appear in quotes like

"T0B3M2","      724806"

Your values in that data set have leading spaces.

data _null_;
   set postcode4 (obs=1);
   z=length(id);
   a = length(strip(id));
   put 'ID length is ' z 'length without leading spaces is ' a ;
run;

The log will show how long the first value of the ID variable as is and after removing the leading spaces.

Good news is that it is easy to get rid of them:

Data want;
   set postcode4;
   id=strip(id);
run;

Re: Left justifying or left aligning values of a variable in a data set

Tom — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 04:47:17 GMT

Please show what the CSV file looks like, what you posted looks like a printout or a spreadsheet, a CSV file is text delimited with commas.

If you used PROC IMPORT to read the CSV file and the values in the ID variable only include digits, like in your example printout, then PROC IMPORT will assume the value is numeric. Just write your own data step to read the file so you can control what type of variable is created.

data want;
  infile 'myfile.csv' dsd truncover firstobs=2;
  input pcode :$6.  id :$12.;
run;

Re: Left justifying or left aligning values of a variable in a data set

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 07:38:00 GMT

When you need to post csv files for reference, do this:

open the file with a text editor (do NOT use Excel!)
mark the first few lines completely; enough so that edge cases (if present in the file) are covered
copy the text to the clipboard
open a subwindow with this button:
paste the text into this window

I inspected your dataset and found that id is in fact character with a length of 12. So I ran this code to left-justify it:

data pcode;
set postcode4;
id = left(id);
run;

Re: Left justifying or left aligning values of a variable in a data set

Primavera — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 21:51:33 GMT

Hello again,

thank you for your help and advice. Your code worked perfectly. But it seems my problem is deeper than that. I am trying to use a program called PCCFPlus_7C that was created by Stats Canada. I need to use it to get some statistical info about some study participants based on their postal codes. When I try to open the program I get:

The result is that many of the lines in the program are truncated and thus the program does not work. Since you are a super user do you know how I can fix this issue? I am using SAS 9.4 (Unicode Support) and my OS is Windows 10 (64-bit).

Many Thanks

Re: Left justifying or left aligning values of a variable in a data set

Primavera — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 21:53:25 GMT

Hello again,

thank you for your help. I am figuring out that my problem is deeper than left-justification of my data. I am trying to use a program called PCCFPlus_7C that was created by Stats Canada. I need to use it to get some statistical info about some study participants based on their postal codes. When I try to open the program I get:

The result is that many of the lines in the program are truncated and thus the program does not work. Do you know how I can fix this issue? I am using SAS 9.4 (Unicode Support) and my OS is Windows 10 (64-bit).

Many Thanks

Re: Left justifying or left aligning values of a variable in a data set

Shmuel — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 00:05:38 GMT

The message "... lines included ..." means there is a statement starting with %include - followed with a text file name containing some code.

Locate that code <file name>.sas and open with notepad or notepad++,

locate the long lines and split them and finally save.

If you saved it in a different name then the original, don't forget to change

that statement starting with %include to the new name.

%include could be abbreviated as %inc.

Then run your program.

Re: Left justifying or left aligning values of a variable in a data set

Tom — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 00:09:12 GMT

What gave you that pop-up error message?

Did you try to include the file into the program editor window in SAS Display Manager?

Re: Left justifying or left aligning values of a variable in a data set

Primavera — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 00:35:54 GMT

I just tried to open the program in the program editor window in SAS Display Manager. Nothing fancy. I have done that with my own codes at least 500 times before and never had seen this error.

Re: Left justifying or left aligning values of a variable in a data set

Primavera — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 00:37:03 GMT

Awesome. It worked. Thanks 🙂