Put Function: Odd syntax -1

_JonT — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 10:59:20 GMT

SAS 9.2

Been looking through some old code and came across this syntax:

data _null_;

x=put(today(), date9. -l);

put x;

run;

The Put function has an odd -1 in it. As far as I can tell it does nothing. But there is nothing in the help about this. In my mind it should syntax error but it doesn't.

I want to convert to EG (SAS 9.4) and use the prompt manager and default macro variable values which result.

So what is it and is I leave it out what's the result?

Re: Put Function: Odd syntax -1

PeterClemmensen — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 11:04:01 GMT

It is not a minus 1 (one). It is -L, which left aligns the value.

You can read about it in the PUT Function Documentation.

topic Re: Put Function: Odd syntax -1 in SAS Programming

Put Function: Odd syntax -1

Re: Put Function: Odd syntax -1