topic datalines in SAS Programming

datalines

Denis — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 14:19:25 GMT

Hi all.

I have two columns in Excel:

a	b
1234	reason
12345	reason_flag
1234567	reason_flag
12345678	reason_flag
12345678910	reason_flag

and I need to put them into SAS. It looks easier to put them under DATALINES neither IMPORT.

data result;

/*length a $20. b $20.;*/

input a$ b$ ;

datalines;

1234 reason

12345 reason_flag

1234567 reason_flag

12345678 reason_flag

12345678910 reason_flag

;

in case of SAS 9.x, all I have to do is remove /* */ from the second row and define maximum LENGTH.

The same approach gives TOTALLY DIFFERENT RESULT in SAS EG:

a	b
1234 reason	12345 reason_flag
1234567 reason_flag	12345678 reason_fla

Could someone explain what the point is????

And what kind of approach might be used , if maximum length of column is unknown, not to loose any character?

Thank you in advance.

Re: datalines

Haikuo — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 14:33:47 GMT

All I know about EG is that it will wrap something around the code you wrote,

Whether or how it would affect the intended results, I can’t really comment on. However, proc import aside, the following approach is considered more robust, given that 1.) Your maximum length is 20 2.) List input. Both methods will stop reading when 1) encountering delimiter, here is the default ‘blank’, 2) reaching maximum length you defined.

/* use colon*/

data result;

input (a b) (:$20.); ;

datalines;

1234 reason

12345 reason_flag

1234567 reason_flag

12345678 reason_flag

12345678910 reason_flag

;

/*use informat*/

data result;

informat a b $20.;

input a b; ;

datalines;

1234 reason

12345 reason_flag

1234567 reason_flag

12345678 reason_flag

12345678910 reason_flag

;

Haikuo

Re: datalines

art297 — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 14:36:15 GMT

To use datalines you have to do all of the copying and pasting, thus potentially introducing error.

I, personally, would save the file (from Excel) as a csv and then use the SAS proc import, setting the guessing rows value high enough that it encompasses all of your records. Let it determine the necessary variable lengths.

Re: datalines

Denis — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 14:47:42 GMT

Hai.kuo, your approach gives the same result as mine.

Please, try to copy data to the excel and from the excel back to the SAS.

Re: datalines

data_null__ — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 14:58:44 GMT

Your problem is caused by TABs. When you copy and paste from excel the fields are tab delimited. How you deal with that is up to you. You could used the INFILE statement option EXPANDTABS or read the file as table delimited DSD DLM='09'x, or something else.

Re: datalines

Denis — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 15:11:53 GMT

That's exactly what I finally did at the end, but, assume, there should be such kind of built in function to determine maximum length.

Re: datalines

TomKari — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 15:12:58 GMT

This came up with me a few months ago. Enterprise Guide behaves differently from Display Manager; DM will by default consider TABS to be a delimiter in CARDS input, whereas EG won't. Here's a link to the Problem Note.

Personally, I like using the DATALINES with DLM='09'x solution; I've never had a problem with it.

Tom

http://support.sas.com/kb/17/257.html

Re: datalines

Denis — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 15:16:15 GMT

thanks!

it works for SAS EG (not for SAS 9)

previously, i tried to define TAB delimiter. (commented)

data result;

/*infile datalines delimiter =' ';*/

infile datalines DLM='09'x;

length a $19. b $19.;

input a$ b$ ;

datalines;

1234 reason

12345 reason_flag

1234567 reason_flag

12345678 reason_flag

12345678910 reason_flag

;

But is there somewhere else difference between SAS 9.x and SAS EG then?