topic Re: Replacing Numeric nulls with blank space in SAS Programming

Replacing Numeric nulls with blank space

suncawy — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 02:00:21 GMT

Per request by the customer, the data set contains numeric nulls with a "." , but the customer wants it to be blank or null without the default numeric null of "." I've tried options missing = ' ', but that still has the numeric null with the period.

Is there another method ?

Thanks.

Re: Replacing Numeric nulls with blank space

Reeza — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 02:15:38 GMT

Options missing should work, can you show what you've tried that didn't work. There's something else that's going on then. Can you also confirm the data type of the variables you're trying to modify?

Are they all character/numeric or a mix?

@suncawy wrote:

Per request by the customer, the data set contains numeric nulls with a "." , but the customer wants it to be blank or null without the default numeric null of "." I've tried options missing = ' ', but that still has the numeric null with the period.

Is there another method ?

Thanks.

Re: Replacing Numeric nulls with blank space

ChrisNZ — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 05:43:54 GMT

SAS represents missing numeric data as dots (or as uppercase letters for special missing values).

If you use options missing=' '; then SAS represents missing values as a space. Using the # character:

options missing='#';
data T; X=.; run;

Re: Replacing Numeric nulls with blank space

Tom — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 15:50:13 GMT

You cannot change how missing values are stored in the dataset. But you can use the MISSING option to change what character is used to print missing values.

Re: Replacing Numeric nulls with blank space

PhilC — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 16:02:35 GMT

@suncawy , is it that you are delivering a SAS "dataset" with the extension "sas7bdat" to your customer?

Re: Replacing Numeric nulls with blank space

suncawy — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 16:09:36 GMT

Using this: OPTIONS MISSING='';

Its showing this:

Re: Replacing Numeric nulls with blank space

suncawy — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 16:11:57 GMT

The dataset isn't being sent to the customer.

From the dataset, its creating a flat file, basically a text file.

Re: Replacing Numeric nulls with blank space

PhilC — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 16:24:46 GMT

What process are you using to create the flat-file?