topic Re: How do I pad a character variable with leading zeroes using PROC SQL in SAS Programming

How do I pad a character variable with leading zeroes using PROC SQL

a079011 — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 14:50:47 GMT

I have input data that will be numeric and/or character and will be anywhere from 1 to 8 characters in length. For example;

OPTION NOCENTER;
DATA rawdata;
INPUT data $ 1-8;
DATALINES;
CCFAIL
JCLERROR
166
1
2
U500
2947
SE37
;
PROC PRINT DATA = rawdata;

I need the final output to be 8 characters in width, aligned right and leading zeros on any value that begin with a number extending it to a length of 8 characters. For example

JCCFAIL

JCLERROR

00000166

00000001

00000002

U500

00002947

SE37

Any thoughts on how to accomplish this would be greatly appreciated.

Re: How do I pad a character variable with leading zeroes using PROC SQL

mkeintz — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 14:56:24 GMT

You have the character values JCLERROR and CCFAIL left-justified in the desired output, but U500 and SE37 are right-justified. What criterion are you using to make that distinction?

Re: How do I pad a character variable with leading zeroes using PROC SQL

a079011 — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 14:59:59 GMT

Looks like copy/paste got me, desired out put should all be right justified.

data

       CCFAIL
JCLERROR
   00000166
   00000001
    00000002
         U500
    00002947
           SE37

Re: How do I pad a character variable with leading zeroes using PROC SQL

mkeintz — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 15:32:26 GMT

proc sql;

select

~~case (anyalpha(data)>0)~~

case (notdigit(trim(data))>0)

when (1) then right(data)

else translate(right(data),'0',' ')

end

as data

from rawdata;

quit;

additional edit: the TRANSLATE function translates characters in the first argument. To me, it is counterintuitive that the 3rd arg is translated to the 2nd, but that's how it is.

Re: How do I pad a character variable with leading zeroes using PROC SQL

a079011 — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 15:23:38 GMT

Thank you!!!!