https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Abort/m-p/61414#M13345 First, I encourage you to enhance your data validation by converting the character date-string to a SAS numeric DATE variable where SAS will validate the data more accurately during the INPUT function processing, the test the _ERROR_ variable for non-zero before you do some exception action.<BR /> <BR /> For your particular post/query, you will want to read the specific OS companion guide about how ABORT works in your particular OS, also considering such OPTIONS as ERRORABEND/NOERRORABEND.<BR /> <BR /> Scott Barry<BR /> SBBWorks, Inc. Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:23:25 GMT sbb 2010-02-23T16:23:25Z https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Abort/m-p/61413#M13344 data _null_;<BR /> set x;<BR /> if (input(substr(dat,1,2),8.) &gt; 12<BR /> or<BR /> input(substr(dat,4,2),8.)&gt; 31<BR /> )<BR /> then error = 'Y';<BR /> if error = 'Y' then abort;<BR /> put 'ERROR:Error in the date field.Correct the date field in the source data';<BR /> run;<BR /> <BR /> I forced values where month is greater than 12 and day is greater than 31.The process did not stop (abort).It processed further. Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:12:26 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Abort/m-p/61413#M13344 SASPhile 2010-02-23T16:12:26Z https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Abort/m-p/61414#M13345 First, I encourage you to enhance your data validation by converting the character date-string to a SAS numeric DATE variable where SAS will validate the data more accurately during the INPUT function processing, the test the _ERROR_ variable for non-zero before you do some exception action.<BR /> <BR /> For your particular post/query, you will want to read the specific OS companion guide about how ABORT works in your particular OS, also considering such OPTIONS as ERRORABEND/NOERRORABEND.<BR /> <BR /> Scott Barry<BR /> SBBWorks, Inc. Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:23:25 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Abort/m-p/61414#M13345 sbb 2010-02-23T16:23:25Z