topic Re: Converting Variable From Numeric to Character in SAS Programming

Converting Variable From Numeric to Character

Lauror — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 14:51:36 GMT

Hi SAS Community,

You've got a newbie in the building when it comes to SQL, so please be gentle as to date I have been using EG in anything I've been carrying out. I've been told that I have a really simple piece of existing code that can just be ran without issue, but it's throwing up an error on step 1.

Error "Expression using equals (=) has components that are of different data types"

I've determined that the code is trying to pull in a numerical value against a left join that has a character value but I don't know how to write the code to change the numerical to character apart from thinking it needs to read something like gl_codes=put(account,8)

from INPUT_DATA as t1

left join gl_codes as t3
on t1.account =t3.gl_code

gl_codes is numeric

account is character (LENGTH8)

Thanks!

Re: Converting Variable From Numeric to Character

PaigeMiller — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 14:55:26 GMT

Something like this:

on t1.account = put(t3.gl_code,8.)

Re: Converting Variable From Numeric to Character

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 15:13:30 GMT

Follow Maxim 3 and get to know your data:

How many digits are stored in account? Are there leading zeroes? Are the values left- or right-aligned?

This will determine how you do the conversion of the numeric variable.

Re: Converting Variable From Numeric to Character

Astounding — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 15:18:31 GMT

Very likely, it would be simpler to (for comparison purposes) convert from character to numeric:

from INPUT_DATA as t1

left join gl_codes as t3
on input(t1.account, 12.) = t3.gl_code

Just pick a wide enough width ... this example assumes that ACCOUNT will be no longer than 12 characters.

Re: Converting Variable From Numeric to Character

DeJanae07 — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 18:07:31 GMT

Hello,

If your goal is to convert a numeric variable to a character variable you must use the "PUT" function.
The PUT function is as follows:
new_variable = PUT (original_variable, format.);

If your goal is to convert a character variable to a numeric variable, you must then use the "INPUT" function,
The INPUT function is as follows:
new_variable = INPUT (original_variable, informat.);

I hope these two functions help with your future conversions of variables.

De'Janae'