topic Re: Convert Charater number to Numeric number with dash in SAS Programming

Convert Charater number to Numeric number with dash

lulu3 — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 01:32:41 GMT

Hi Expert,

I would like to convert character number to numeric number with dash variables.

data have;
input id $ Character $11. ;
datalines;
1 123-45-7890
2 234-65-3960
3 351-47-9012
;
run;

I tried the following code, but the numeric variable was still character.

data want;
set have;
Numeric=input(Character, $11.);
run;

One more question, I want to know how to conver character from or to numeric number if the variable include dash (-).

Thank you for your help!

Re: Convert Charater number to Numeric number with dash

Tom — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 01:48:14 GMT

Those look like Social Security numbers. Leave them as character. You will not have any reason to take the mean of a SSNO. Or add two or more of them together so there is no reason to store them as numbers.

To remove the dashes use COMPRESS() function.

data have;
  length id $8 ssno11 $11 ssno $9 ;
  input id ssno11  ;
  ssno = compress(ssno11,'-');
datalines;
1 123-45-7890
2 234-65-3960
3 351-47-9012
;

Re: Convert Charater number to Numeric number with dash

lulu3 — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 02:00:32 GMT

Yes, it is SSN. I have one dateset the SSN was original stored as numeric number (etc. 123-45-6789). I want to transfer the numeric SSN to character SSN. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks.

Re: Convert Charater number to Numeric number with dash

Tom — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 02:05:15 GMT

Why not use the SSN format?

data want;
  set have ;
  ssno11 = put(ssno,ssn11.);
run;