topic Re: problem while concatenation using || in SAS Programming

problem while concatenation using ||

monusing — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 18:14:09 GMT

Please see the below SAS code and provide a explanation on why the value of variable jobcategory is "FA" only

data staff;
jobcategory = 'FA';
joblevel = '1';
jobcategory = jobcategory||joblevel;
run;

I am including a Length statement after data statement as "Length jobcategory $20.", still answer is same "FA".

but we are getting correct value once the output variable is changed to "JOBCATEGORY1" as shown below

data staff;
length jobcategory1 $15.;
jobcategory = 'FA';
joblevel = '1';
jobcategory1 = jobcategory||joblevel;
run;

Thanks in advance

Reeza — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 18:23:47 GMT

This is correct, because of trailing spaces.

In the first example it creates jobcategory with a length of 2 and then there's no room for the remaining text.

In the second example it creates jobcategory with a length of 15 - 2 chars and trailing spaces.

I would assign a length at the beginning and use a CATT() function instead as it deals with the trailing spaces and I don't have to think about them.

data staff;
length jobcategory $15.;
jobcategory = 'FA';
joblevel = '1';
jobcategory = catt(jobcategory, joblevel);
run;

proc print;run;

Shmuel — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 18:24:11 GMT

When first occurence of a variable is assignment of a string, like:

data out;

var = 'STRING';

....

then the length of that variable is the length of the string (in this example 6 chracters);

when you try to assign a longer string it is truncated.

To solve it you need define a length - the maximum expected for that variable;

data out;

length var $10;

var = 'STRING'; output;

var = 'Longer one'; output;

var = 'Too mutch long string'; output;

run;

check out and you will see that the 3rd line is truncated to 10 characters only;

monusing — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 18:48:49 GMT

you want to say that when i assign the length as 15 initially, it includes traling spaces also?.

So length is a compiling time statement?