topic Invalid Character Data for a numeric calculation in SAS Programming

Invalid Character Data for a numeric calculation

teckquan — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 07:45:07 GMT

Hi there, I am trying to do some mathematics operation as below:

data XX;

set table;

A= B*C/D

run;

B C D A
5000000.00 0.045000 2 *
5000000.00 0.045000 2 *

These are the logs for the operation.

NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).
127:53
NOTE: Variable A is uninitialized.
NOTE: Invalid character data, 112500.00 , at line 127 column 53.

Why does A change to character and how to stop it?

Re: Invalid Character Data for a numeric calculation

andreas_lds — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 08:26:18 GMT

The first note "Numeric values have been converted to character values" indicates a problem during data import. Storing number in alphanumeric variables is not recommended.

Are B, C and D numeric variables? If not: fix this first.

If A is not in dataset "table", add a length-statement.

Re: Invalid Character Data for a numeric calculation

teckquan — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 09:13:43 GMT

Thanks for your reply. I fixed it with changing the IMPORT datatype of D from string to numeric. It was auto set to string as it is empty.