topic Re: Modified List Input in SAS Programming

Modified List Input

adennis8872 — Wed, 24 May 2017 17:33:04 GMT

I have a file called BASEBALL.TXT

Here is one of the observation:

Ty Cobb, "Narrows, Georgia", The Georgia Peach

You submit this program

data scores;

infile BASEBALL.TXT dsd dlm=','

input Name :$20. Birthplace :$30. Nickname :$25.;

run;

The solution says for this particular observation the correct output is:

Ty Cobb, Narrows, Georgia, The Georgia Peach

My question is why did it remove the double quotes around Narrow, Georgia? Why is correct?

Re: Modified List Input

mkeintz — Wed, 24 May 2017 17:47:29 GMT

Look up the section "modified list input" for the input statement. Especially use of the tilde (~) modifier. It's in SAS 9.4 Statements Reference book.

Re: Modified List Input

Tom — Wed, 24 May 2017 18:18:57 GMT

Because you used the DSD option.

The quotes in a CSV file are just there to allow consumers of the file to know that the embedded delimiter is part of the field value and NOT an indicaiton of the beginning of a new value. So SAS removes the quotes around values.

If you want actual quotes in the data field then you will need to quote the whole value.

Ty Cobb,"""Narrows, Georgia""",The Georgia Peach

Re: Modified List Input

mkeintz — Wed, 24 May 2017 19:19:42 GMT

It is because of the annoying need to triple the quotes wanted that I suggest learning about ~.

data scores;
 infile datalines   dlm=',' dsd;
 input Name :~$20. Birthplace :~$30. Nickname :~$25.;
 put (_all_) (/ =);
datalines;
Ty Cobb, "Narrows, Georgia", The Georgia Peach
Ty Cobb, 'Narrows, Georgia', The Georgia Peach
run;

The tilde format modifier is documented as

"reads delimiters within quoted character values as characters and retains the quotation marks".