topic Re: How to format character variable from excel data in SAS Programming

How to format character variable from excel data

dlazer1 — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 21:07:11 GMT

Below is the code I have but I am getting no observations once I do this step. Please help!

data workingdata;
set work.test;
Format CIK $10;

IF COMPANY_FKEY<=9999 THEN CIK =cats('000000',COMPANY_FKEY);

I need to create all these values as 10 digits with leading 0's.

Do I need to define company_fkey before?

Thank you!

Re: How to format character variable from excel data

JasonDiVirgilio — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 21:17:39 GMT

Make sure there is a period ('.') after your format... so it should look like FORMAT CIK $10.;

And yes, the variable COMPANY_FKEY needs to be defined in the work.test dataset if you are going to test its value in the workingdata data step.

Re: How to format character variable from excel data

dlazer1 — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 21:25:30 GMT

data workingdata;
267 Set work.test;
268 COMPANY_FKEY=CIK;
269 run;

271 data workingdata1;
272 Set work.workingdata;
273 Format CIK $10.;
WARNING: Variable CIK has already been defined as numeric.

This now shows up. How do I orignally format CIK as numeric---need it to be character since I need the leading zeros. Numeric gets rid of the leading zeros.

Re: How to format character variable from excel data

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 21:30:38 GMT

You can't change the type of the variable, you can only replace it by creating a new variable and using rename= and drop= dataset options.

Re: How to format character variable from excel data

ballardw — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 21:56:21 GMT

@dlazer1 wrote:

data workingdata;
267 Set work.test;
268 COMPANY_FKEY=CIK; Since CIK already exists here it seems that it was created or made numeric when work.test was created.
269 run;

271 data workingdata1;
272 Set work.workingdata;
273 Format CIK $10.;
WARNING: Variable CIK has already been defined as numeric.

This now shows up. How do I orignally format CIK as numeric---need it to be character since I need the leading zeros. Numeric gets rid of the leading zeros.

If you have a numeric variable and need to create a character version then use

Charversion = put(numericversion, Z10.);

the Z format pads the displayed value with leading zeroes to the number of spaces indicated in the format. If the variable has a value of 123 and you use the Z10 it will display, or with put statement as shown create, 0000000123

Re: How to format character variable from excel data

dlazer1 — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 23:15:34 GMT

Thank you!