topic Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows in SAS Programming

length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

zhuxiaoyan1 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 17:18:46 GMT

I'm trying to convert a char var into numeric var, but the I got something different from waht in the char var.

char_var num_var

0080082362016000002 0080082362016000000
0080082362016000003 0080082362016000000
0114419572016000028 0114419572016000032

The length of the var causes the problem. SAS can only represent 16 digits exactly under windows. Is there any way to overcome this? Thanks!

Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

DanielSantos — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 17:26:54 GMT

Hi.

What type of conversion you need?

SAS numeric variables are 8 byte in length and uses floating representation which has its limits.

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrcon/69852/HTML/default/viewer.htm#p0ji1unv6thm0dn1gp4t01a1u0g6.htm

Could you share the code you are running?

Daniel Santos @ www.cgd.pt

Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

Sven111 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 17:31:25 GMT

Not easily, not that I'm aware of anyways. Here's an article that discusses various options for bignum handling. When I've needed to use larger numbers I usually offload it to a database like Oracle or Teradata and then do explicit pass-through PROC SQL to handle it.

Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

zhuxiaoyan1 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 17:33:56 GMT

data want;
set have;
Num_service=input(service_number, 19.);
format Num_service z19.;
run;

Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

zhuxiaoyan1 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 17:45:07 GMT

Thanks!

Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 17:54:42 GMT

Are these numbers after all? The leading zeroes make me think that these are actually key strings consisting of digits only.

Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

Sven111 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 18:06:29 GMT

I was thinking this as well, or even some oddly formatted date/timestamp string (possibly concatenated with another string/value) given that all three examples have 2016 in there.

Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

SASKiwi — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 19:33:27 GMT

Why do you need to convert these to a numeric variable? If you are not doing calculations it shouldn't be necessary.

Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

zhuxiaoyan1 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 19:48:17 GMT

It is string variables, but I want convert them into numeric variables. That is what required in our submission file.

Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

Sven111 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 20:37:41 GMT

Submission file to what? If you're submitting the final output to something outside of SAS anyways (CSV, etc.) then it shouldn't matter how SAS treats it internally as long as you don't need to do numeric manipulation on that variable.

Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 20:39:39 GMT

In pure SAS, numbers like that can't be handled. Technically impossible. Only in proc ds2 you have other number formats at your disposal, or in database systems.

Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

DanielSantos — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 14:29:47 GMT

Hi.

What everyone said previously. It's not possible in plain SAS.

But then, why does this have to be numeric?

Is it for loading into a Database? If so you may typecast it at load and it won't be a problem.

Daniel Santos @ www.cgd.pt

Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

zhuxiaoyan1 — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 16:51:06 GMT

yes, It is loading into a database. Thanks!

Re: length of numeric variables in SAS under windows

DanielSantos — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 17:55:07 GMT

OK.

Then check if you can bulkload the data into your database. If so, DBSASTYPE is option you are looking for.

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/acreldb/69580/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n0v4ma1zb9lu99n1728j279rjcqi.htm

It will type cast the column while loading into the database.

That way, there is no need to convert the character variable into numeric, SAS will do that for you during loading.

Hope it helps.

Daniel Santos @ www.cgd.pt