topic Re: how to convert the Character sting of numbers to numeric with spaces in it in SAS Programming

how to convert the Character sting of numbers to numeric with spaces in it

SASuserlot — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 15:22:02 GMT

I have the following number in character format. How Can I change that into the numeric form, including spaces? Is that possible?

'012932 01 001'

Re: how to convert the Character sting of numbers to numeric with spaces in it

Reeza — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 15:44:23 GMT

Numbers don't have spaces. You could rig a formula to have it displayed this way but be a number underneath. Why do you want it to be numeric?

Re: how to convert the Character sting of numbers to numeric with spaces in it

JOL — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 15:57:12 GMT

In SAS numeric values can only contain digits 0-9, decimals and E for scientific notation. But you can create a custom format to display the value in the pattern you want, but you must convert the original character to a number. See steps below:

Re: how to convert the Character sting of numbers to numeric with spaces in it

Tom — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 16:24:37 GMT

@SASuserlot wrote:

I have the following number in character format. How Can I change that into the numeric form, including spaces? Is that possible?

'012932 01 001'

And what number would that be?

Looks like THREE numbers to me. Or really TWO different numbers. 1 is written two different ways because of different number of leading zeros. A the first number (12,932) is also written with a leading zero.

Re: how to convert the Character sting of numbers to numeric with spaces in it

ballardw — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 17:31:22 GMT

@SASuserlot wrote:

I have the following number in character format. How Can I change that into the numeric form, including spaces? Is that possible?

'012932 01 001'

And just what numeric value would that have? Since spaces are not normally part of a number we need to know exactly what numeric value you expect that to have.

What calculations are you going to sue with this numeric value? If the answer is "none" then don't bother, you are just adding complexity.

You can create a custom format to display numeric values in that format but without details it may be insufficient. Example:

proc format;
picture sss
low-high ='00000 00 009'
;
run;

data _null_;
  input x;
  put x= sss. ;
datalines;
1
12
123
1234
12345
123456
1234567
12345678
123456789
1234567890
;

proc format;
picture sss
low-high ='99999 99 999'
;
run;

data _null_;
  input x;
  put x= sss. ;
datalines;
1
12
123
1234
12345
123456
1234567
12345678
123456789
1234567890
;

The log shows some formatted values but would likely need some details as to actual appearance

Re: how to convert the Character sting of numbers to numeric with spaces in it

SASuserlot — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 13:59:31 GMT

Sorry for the confusion. I mean to say the format of the number like how @JOL and @ballardw explained in the solution.

Thank you for asking more questions so that I learn to be precise.

Re: how to convert the Character sting of numbers to numeric with spaces in it

SASuserlot — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 14:01:23 GMT

Thank you, @JOL @ballardw. This is what I am looking for. Thanks to @Tom @Reeza for your questions and explanations as well.