topic Re: How to avoid truncation of newly created variable in SAS Programming

How to avoid truncation of newly created variable

Ravindra_ — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 12:06:54 GMT

I have a variable which i had created by concatenating multiple other variables, but the text information within that variable in getting truncated and i had used the length of 2000 but of no use, i am still facing the same issue. Below is my code.

DATA FINAL2;
length message Message1-Message8 $2000;
set pre;
if SEX~=I_DM_SEX_TXT then Message1=compbl("Error: "||SEX||" <> "||I_DM_SEX_TXT||".");
if strip(vvalue(VISIT_DT))~=strip(vvalue(DSSTDAT_C)) then Message2=compbl("Error: "||VISIT_DT||" <> "||DSSTDAT_C||".");
if INDICATION~=I_STRATA_IND_TXT then Message3=compbl("Error: "||INDICATION||" <> "||I_STRATA_IND_TXT||".");
if strip(SUBTYPE)~=strip(I_C1_SUBT_TXT) then Message4=compbl("Error: "||SUBTYPE||" <> "||I_C1_SUBT_TXT||".");
if BASELINE_ANG_ATT_RATE~=I_STRATA_DRATE_TXT then Message5=compbl("Error: "||BASELINE_ANG_ATT_RATE||" <> "||I_STRATA_DRATE_TXT||".");
if SITE_NUMBER~=SITEMNEMONIC then Message6=strip(compbl("Error: "||SITE_NUMBER||" <> "||SITEMNEMONIC||"."));
if VISIT_TYPE~=EDC_VISIT_TYPE then Message7=strip(compbl("Error: "||VISIT_TYPE||" <> "||EDC_VISIT_TYPE||"."));
if SCREENING_NUM~=PATIENTNUMBER then Message8=strip(compbl("Error: "||SCREENING_NUM||" <> "||PATIENTNUMBER||"."));

MIS=STRIP(CATX(",",OF Message1-Message8));
IF MIS NE " " THEN message=STRIP(MIS); ELSE message=" ";
drop Message1-Message8;
if message ne "" ;
RUN;

Can someone tell me how to resolve this truncation issue.

Re: How to avoid truncation of newly created variable

andreas_lds — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 12:12:23 GMT

Sorry, but the code is an unreadable mess. Please post formatted code.

Re: How to avoid truncation of newly created variable

PaigeMiller — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 12:13:49 GMT

We don't have your data, so we can't see the truncation you are seeing. Please provide a portion of your data following these instructions, and not by any other method.

DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP: please provide code in a SAS code by, by clicking on the "running man" icon and pasting your code into the window that appears. Your code is essentially unreadable as you have provided it.

Re: How to avoid truncation of newly created variable

Ravindra_ — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 12:54:37 GMT

DATA FINAL2;
length message Message1 Message2 Message3 Message4 Message5 Message6 Message7 Message8 $2000.;
set pre;
if SEX~=I_DM_SEX_TXT then Message1=compbl("Error: "||SEX||" <> "||I_DM_SEX_TXT||".");
if vvalue(VISIT_DT)~=vvalue(DSSTDAT_C) then Message2=compbl("Error: "||VISIT_DT||" <> "||DSSTDAT_C||".");
if INDICATION~=I_STRATA_IND_TXT then Message3=compbl("Error: "||INDICATION||" <> "||I_STRATA_IND_TXT||".");
if strip(SUBTYPE)~=strip(I_STRATA_SUBT_TXT) then Message4=compbl("Error: "||SUBTYPE||" <> "||I_STRATA_SUBT_TXT||".");
if BASELINE_ANG_ATT_RATE~=I_STRATA_DRATE_TXT then Message5=compbl("Error: "||BASELINE_ANG_ATT_RATE||" <> "||I_STRATA_DRATE_TXT||".");
if SITE_NUMBER~=SITEMNEMONIC then Message6=compbl("Error: "||SITE_NUMBER||" <> "||SITEMNEMONIC||".");
if VISIT_TYPE~=EDC_VISIT_TYPE then Message7=compbl("Error: "||VISIT_TYPE||" <> "||EDC_VISIT_TYPE||".");
if SCREENING_NUM~=PATIENTNUMBER then Message8=compbl("Error: "||SCREENING_NUM||" <> "||PATIENTNUMBER||".");

MIS=STRIP(CATX(",",OF Message1-Message8));
IF MIS NE " " THEN message=STRIP(MIS); ELSE message=" ";
drop Message1-Message8;
if message ne "" ;
RUN;

The above is the code, truncation is happening with the variable "message"

Re: How to avoid truncation of newly created variable

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 13:08:35 GMT

And where did you set the length of MIS? Nowhere. So it is defined per default with a length of 200.

See CATX Function :

In a DATA step, if the CATX function returns a value to a variable that has not previously been assigned a length, that variable is given a length of 200 bytes.

And that length is also returned by STRIP.

Re: How to avoid truncation of newly created variable

PaigeMiller — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 13:09:56 GMT

You probably ought to declare a length on MIS

If that's not it, then as I requested, show us a portion of the data that illustrates the problem, using the method I linked to (and not using any other method)

Re: How to avoid truncation of newly created variable

Ravindra_ — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 13:58:06 GMT

Thanks a lot for identifying this, it resolved my issue.

Re: How to avoid truncation of newly created variable

Ravindra_ — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 13:58:53 GMT

Thanks a lot for help, this had resolved the issue

Re: How to avoid truncation of newly created variable

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 14:07:44 GMT

PS you do no need to strip the result of CATX, as CATX removes all leading and trailing blanks of all elements by itself; the receiving variable will be padded to its defined length as usual.