topic Re: Empty date columns seem to be auto-filling with a " ." How would I turn this off? in New SAS User

Empty date columns seem to be auto-filling with a " ." How would I turn this off?

mreynaud — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 18:25:23 GMT

Hello SAS Community,

I have some datasets with date columns, however, some of my blank cells seem to be auto-filling with a " ."

It presents an issue when I export my data into Excel and the columns are interpreted as character instead of date.

It would be great if blank cells were left blank. Is there a simple way to turn off this future? Or do I have to add additional lines of code to replace "." with " "

Any help is much appreciated!

Re: Empty date columns seem to be auto-filling with a " ." How would I turn this off?

PaigeMiller — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 19:08:38 GMT

Try setting the SAS option as follows

options missing=' ';

Re: Empty date columns seem to be auto-filling with a " ." How would I turn this off?

ballardw — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 19:11:34 GMT

You might try setting (that is a single space between quotes)

options missing=' ';

prior to use.

Though that may depend on just how you export data to excel.

There is ALWAYS something in the data set. The option sets a single character character to display by default when a value is missing. You can basically use any single character you would like. OR create a custom format and use the format to display even more interesting results...

There is no "auto-filling" going on.