character variable (containing letter) to numeric variable

michellel — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 16:03:59 GMT

Hi,

I have a question about converting character variable to numeric variable in SAS. My data set contains a character variable, which is five (5) digits and each digit may be letter or number. Now I want to convert the variable to numeric (actually only the ones with all five digits work well to be convert to numerical, and also keep others with letter as they are used to be). How to combine this condition with input function or is there any other way to do? Thanks much!

-Michelle

Re: character variable (containing letter) to numeric variable

Astounding — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 17:07:58 GMT

Converting to numeric requires defining a new variable, but the code is simple:

newvar = input(oldvar, ??5.);

The question marks suppress messages about invalid data that would have been generated when encountering letters. The new variable will have a missing value for those observations that can't be converted.

Good luck.

topic Re: character variable (containing letter) to numeric variable in SAS Programming

character variable (containing letter) to numeric variable

Re: character variable (containing letter) to numeric variable