topic Re: NUMERICAL TO CHARACTER FORMAT HELP in SAS Programming

NUMERICAL TO CHARACTER FORMAT HELP

hnb_matt_d — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 22:38:25 GMT

Hey, everyone... I'm trying to convert a numerical variable to a character variable to be able to join an additional table (each one has the same variable nomenclature, but one is numerical and one is character... (not my) poor design, I know. The variable customer_id is numerical in the xxx_customers table with a length of 8 bytes and format/informat of 20. Same variable (customer_id) is character in the xxx_investigation_relationship table with a length of 50 bytes and format/informat of $50. I'm wanting to change the numerical variable in the xxx_customers table to character for joining the xxx_investigation_relationship table. The customer_id can vary from as few as four (4) digits to as many as eight (8) digits. Not sure if that matters when converting to character. I tried using put(xxx_customers.customer_id, 8.) as customer_id. While it did change the format to character, the join won't produce results (which it should as I've manually checked some customer_id to find them in each table). Thanks in advance for any and all assistance rendered.

Re: NUMERICAL TO CHARACTER FORMAT HELP

ballardw — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 23:05:01 GMT

When you use PUT to create a character variable from numeric the results by default are right justified so you end up with leading spaces for values less than 8, in your example, digits.

Use the -L justification option: put(var, 8 -L) to create a left justified variable.

Re: NUMERICAL TO CHARACTER FORMAT HELP

PaigeMiller — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 23:06:24 GMT

While it did change the format to character, the join won't produce results

There could be a lot of reasons for this.

Show us examples of typical values in each of the two variables. Let's say we need to see a dozen example. Show us the code you used.