topic Re: Proc contents 'Len' in SAS Programming

Proc contents 'Len'

SASAna — Wed, 25 May 2016 16:49:21 GMT

how to read 'len' from PROC CONTENTS ? I have 368 attributes with diff legth and formats .

I tried doing PROC CONTENTS and SQL to get the lengths in col_widths.

proc contents data = output_xlsd out =output_contents; run;

Proc SQL noprint;
Select len into: col_widths separated by "," From output_contents; Quit;

I am getting error as 'len; not found as it is not present in the output_contents dataset. How to get the lengths of all attributes with simple logic?

Thanks,

Deepa

Re: Proc contents 'Len'

FreelanceReinh — Wed, 25 May 2016 17:16:27 GMT

The relevant variable name in output_contents is LENGTH, not LEN.

Re: Proc contents 'Len'

JediApprentice — Wed, 25 May 2016 17:18:36 GMT

So, are you trying to get the lengths assigned to a new variable (col_widths)?

Re: Proc contents 'Len'

Astounding — Wed, 25 May 2016 17:22:46 GMT

You already did, without needing SQL. Take a look at the output data set from PROC CONTENTS. For example, you could try:

proc print data=output_contents;

var name length;

run;

You have the information, you just have to figure out how to use it.

Re: Proc contents 'Len'

SASAna — Wed, 25 May 2016 21:11:01 GMT

Thanks all

Re: Proc contents 'Len'

RW9 — Thu, 26 May 2016 13:08:05 GMT

It would be interesting to know the Why of this. I mean theoretcially you could put all the lengths into macro variables and go that way, but as the SAS metadata can be accessed like a dataset it seems a bit of a faff. Say for instance you want to standardise the length of all character variables to 200 and numerics to 8:

data _null_;
 set sashelp.vcolumn (where=(libname="SASHELP" and memname="CLASS")) end=last;
 if _n_=1 then call execute('data want; length');
 call execute(cat(' ',strip(name),ifc(type="char",' $200',' 8')));
 if last then call execute('; set sashelp.class; run;');
run;