topic Re: identify which observation has a character value and generating conversion note in SAS Programming

identify which observation has a character value and generating conversion note

jenim514 — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 23:05:11 GMT

Hi,

I am doing a char to numeric conversion, but I am getting one note in my log that says:

NOTE: Character values have been converted to numeric values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).
6232:23

I don't have this many lines or columns in my data set. I also don't see any character values that would generate this note. I did a proc freq on all the variables I am converting. Is there any way to specifically identify which value this is pointing to? I have no idea what the 6232:23 is (i have 3504 rows and 14 columns). I know it's not a big deal, but I can't have any conversion notes in my log.

Here is some of code:

length results $100.;
format range $4.;
siresult1=input(siresult,best.);
SINORMLO1=input(SINORMLO,best.);
SINORMHI1=input(SINORMHI,best.);
if siresult1^=. then do;
if siresult1< SINORMLO1 then Range='L';
if siresult1>SINORMHI1 then Range='H';
if SINORMLO1<SIRESULT1<SINORMHI1 then Range='';
results=catx(", ",put(siresult1,8.1), range);
end;
else if siresult1='' then do;
results='';

Thank you!

Re: identify which observation has a character value and generating conversion note

Reeza — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 23:08:00 GMT

The line numbers refer to the numbers in the log.

CHECK YOUR LOG. And post it.

Re: identify which observation has a character value and generating conversion note

ChrisNZ — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 23:11:36 GMT

The numbers are the position in the log.

Here line #27 column # 5.

25
26 data T;
27 A='1'+1;
28 run;

NOTE: Character values have been converted to numeric values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).
27:5
NOTE: The data set WORK.T has 1 observations and 1 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):

Re: identify which observation has a character value and generating conversion note

jenim514 — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 23:28:08 GMT

Found it! Thank you.

Re: identify which observation has a character value and generating conversion note

ballardw — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 15:33:54 GMT

In your code snippet:

if siresult1^=. then do;  <= siresult is numeric
 if siresult1< SINORMLO1 then Range='L';
 if siresult1>SINORMHI1 then Range='H';
 if SINORMLO1<SIRESULT1<SINORMHI1 then Range='';
 results=catx(", ",put(siresult1,8.1), range);
 end;
 else if siresult1='' then do;  <= here you are treating siresult as character

Us the function MISSING:

else if missing(siresult) then do ...

OR compare to the missing value

else if sirresult = . then do

Use of missing is a better option as that is one of the functions that works with both numeric and character values. Also it makes the code a bit easier to understand.