https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Input-Statements/m-p/68757#M14902 The missing . on the FORMAT turn it the input to "column input" as if you said.<BR /> <BR /> input state $ 2-2; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:00:19 GMT data_null__ 2010-03-16T17:00:19Z https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Input-Statements/m-p/68756#M14901 Hi,<BR /> <BR /> I ran the following program, which has a missing period (.) at the last informat for State:<BR /> <BR /> data work.a;<BR /> infile 'test.txt';<BR /> input @2 populateion comma9.<BR /> @12 Rank 1.<BR /> @14 CITY $12.<BR /> @27 STATE $2 ;<BR /> <BR /> run;<BR /> <BR /> The program ran and the result is as follow:<BR /> <BR /> Obs populateion Rank CITY STATE<BR /> <BR /> 1 8143197 1 New York 8<BR /> 2 3844829 2 Los Angeles 3<BR /> 3 2842518 3 Chicago 2<BR /> <BR /> May I know how did SAS derive the values 8, 3, 2 for the colum state? Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:26:35 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Input-Statements/m-p/68756#M14901 huikeng_sas 2010-03-16T16:26:35Z https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Input-Statements/m-p/68757#M14902 The missing . on the FORMAT turn it the input to "column input" as if you said.<BR /> <BR /> input state $ 2-2; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:00:19 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Input-Statements/m-p/68757#M14902 data_null__ 2010-03-16T17:00:19Z