topic Re: How do I keep decimal place precision when multiplying? in SAS Programming

How do I keep decimal place precision when multiplying?

eap — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 03:22:25 GMT

Hi SAS Users -

I'm cleaning variables (latitude and longitude) variables before pulling the dataset into ArcMap. Many of the longitude variables are (+) values and need to be converted to (-) values to map accurately in North America.

PROBLEM: I'm losing precision and dropping a decimal place when I do the following. Any Ideas?

Original value= +118.27436

New value = -118.2744

if long gt 0 then do;
   long2=long*-1.00000;
end;
else do;
   long2=long;
end;	
run;

Re: How do I keep decimal place precision when multiplying?

LaurieF — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 03:33:13 GMT

No you're not losing precision - the internal representation is fine. It's the external formatted value which is truncated by default.

Try this:

data _null_;
long = +118.27436;
if long gt 0 then do;
   long2=long*-1.00000;
end;
else do;
   long2=long;
end;
put long2= best23.;	
run;

Re: How do I keep decimal place precision when multiplying?

PGStats — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 04:05:14 GMT

The difference is only in the displayed representation. Give both variables the same format and they will display the same.

data _null_;
long1 =  +118.27436;
format long1 long2 12.6;
long2 = -abs(long1);
put long1= / long2=;
run;

long1=118.274360
long2=-118.274360

Re: How do I keep decimal place precision when multiplying?

eap — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 03:45:16 GMT

Thanks LaurieF! It worked perfectly and I only had to add a line of syntax.

Re: How do I keep decimal place precision when multiplying?

eap — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 03:59:12 GMT

Thanks PG Stats! You're syntax worked too. I just had to tweak it to put it in the Do Loops.

I liked that your syntax resulted in Long and Long2 being side by side in the dataset instead of Long2 being at the end.

I thought I would be able to accept more than one solution but that wasn't the case.