topic Re: format SSN could not be found or loaded in New SAS User

format SSN could not be found or loaded

Cooksam13 — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 15:12:38 GMT

Hi i am trying to format my SSN numbers to have the dashes in it

I have used the SSN11. SSN. $SSN. $SSN11. and i get an error each time. can some one help?

1 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;

73 Data Work.Vitals1;

74 Set Vitals10

75 vitals11

76 vitals12

77 Vitals13

78 vitals14;

79 Keep ApptDate

80 SSN

81 Measure

82 Value;

83 Rename ApptDate = VisitDt;

84 Format SSN $SSN.;

_____

484

NOTE 484-185: Format $SSN was not found or could not be loaded.

87 Run;

Re: format SSN could not be found or loaded

PaigeMiller — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 18:35:50 GMT

SSN is a numeric format, so the $ is not needed (in fact, it is wrong to use it there), and applies to only numeric variables. Is SSN a numeric variable?

What is a typical value of SSN in your data set? Please show us a few examples (or a screen capture of SSN in the data set).

Re: format SSN could not be found or loaded

Cooksam13 — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 18:41:20 GMT

SSN is a character value with 9 characters

examples are

528536558

529105349

528887912

Re: format SSN could not be found or loaded

Cooksam13 — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 18:41:51 GMT

SSN is a character value with 9 characters

examples are

528536558

529105349

528887912

Re: format SSN could not be found or loaded

PaigeMiller — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 18:49:37 GMT

It can't be character, it has to be numeric.

Try this

SSN1 = input(SSN,9.); /* Creates a numeric variable SSN1 */
format ssn1 ssn.; /* Apply format to SSN1 */

Re: format SSN could not be found or loaded

ballardw — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 18:49:59 GMT

@Cooksam13 wrote:
SSN is a character value with 9 characters

examples are

528536558

529105349

528887912

Which means the numeric format SSN cannot be used.

Re: format SSN could not be found or loaded

Cooksam13 — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 19:10:33 GMT

thanks this works but i need to keep it a character. how would i do that?

Re: format SSN could not be found or loaded

PaigeMiller — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 19:15:28 GMT

@Cooksam13 wrote:
thanks this works but i need to keep it a character. how would i do that?

SSN is character

SSN1 is numeric

What isn't working if you use properly formatted SSN1 instead of SSN

keep SSN a character but the format cannot be found

Cooksam13 — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 15:11:15 GMT

Hi, i just asked this question but i thought i should clarify more what I need to happen

I am combing data sets vertically and one of my data sets will not change the SSN format it is in. I need to have them be in the 11 character format. The SSN is currently in Character format with 9 characters.

I currently have this

126 Data Work.Vitals;

127 Set Vitals

128 vitals11

129 vitals12

130 Vitals13

131 vitals14;

132 Keep ApptDate

133 SSN

134 Measure

135 Value;

136 Rename ApptDate = VisitDt;

137 Format SSN $SSN.;

_____

484

NOTE 484-185: Format $SSN was not found or could not be loaded.

however in my original code '$' is not included in it for SSN.

The examples of data i have are

008276992

036788134

044905089

Work.Vitals will be added to several other data sets and that is where the problem is coming from. "SSN is categorized as characters and numbers in other data sets"

But every data set besides Work.Vitals is in the correct format of SSN11. so i know that Work.Vitals is the culprit. can someone please help?

Re: keep SSN a character but the format cannot be found

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 20:15:47 GMT

If you need to clarify something, please do it in the original thread. That's why I moved your post here.

Re: keep SSN a character but the format cannot be found

PaigeMiller — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 13:21:20 GMT

@Cooksam13 wrote:

Hi, i just asked this question but i thought i should clarify more what I need to happen

I am combing data sets vertically and one of my data sets will not change the SSN format it is in. I need to have them be in the 11 character format. The SSN is currently in Character format with 9 characters.

I currently have this

*Creating data for Utah *;

126 Data Work.Vitals_UT1;

127 Set Hypimpt.utah_Vitals_2010

128 HypImpt.utah_vitals_2011

129 HypImpt.Utah_vitals_2012

130 HYpImpt.Utah_Vitals_2013

131 hypimpt.Utah_vitals_2014;

132 Keep ApptDate

133 SSN

134 Measure

135 Value;

136 Rename ApptDate = VisitDt;

137 Format SSN $SSN.;

_____

484

NOTE 484-185: Format $SSN was not found or could not be loaded.

however in my original code '$' is not included in it for SSN.

The examples of data i have are

008276992

036788134

044905089

Work.Vitals_UT1 will be added to several other data sets and that is where the problem is coming from. "SSN is categorized as characters and numbers in other data sets"

But every data set besides Work.Vitals_Ut1 is in the correct format of SSN11. so i know that Work.Vitals_UT is the culprit. can someone please help?

So, if I am understanding this properly, you have SSNs character variables that are 11 characters long in some data sets, and SSNs that are character variables that are 9 characters long in other data sets, and you are trying to merge the data sets by SSN.

Is that a correct statement?

So, in the data sets with SSNs that are character variables that are 9 characters long, this ought to work:

data new;
    length ssn $ 11;
    set old;
    SSN1 = input(SSN,9.); /* Creates a numeric variable SSN1 */
    format ssn1 ssn.; /* Apply format to SSN1 */
    ssn=vvalue(ssn1); /* Convert properly formatted SSN1 to character variable 11 characters long */
run;

and now SSN is a character variable 11 characters long.