topic Re: SAS format Issue in SAS Enterprise Guide

SAS format Issue

sumanthjbhargav — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 15:16:10 GMT

Hi,

I am trying to take the sum ofa numerical variable but getting the values in exponential. I must retain the sum as whole number as it is because i need it for comparing.

data abc;
x = 9823748762398720570234;
run;

proc sql;
create table temp as
select sum(x) from abc;
quit;

Re: SAS format Issue

ChrisHemedinger — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 15:30:39 GMT

How about this:

proc sql;

create table temp as

select sum(x) as Sum format=32. from abc;

quit;

Chris

Re: SAS format Issue

ballardw — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 15:56:24 GMT

If your example is typical of your data then you are exceeding the precision of SAS variables, at least as documented in SAS 9.3.

Re: SAS format Issue

stat_sas — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 15:57:11 GMT

The precision of floating-point values is accurate to approximately 15 digits.

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/hostwin/63285/HTML/default/viewer.htm#numvar.htm

Re: SAS format Issue

sumanthjbhargav — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 06:00:47 GMT

Many thanks for the conclusion

Re: SAS format Issue

jakarman — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 09:25:43 GMT

reading some old statistical books. make you data numbers to a converted offset position (1970's), sliders were seen, doing handwork understanding your data and tools.
The pitfall of working with big numbers is losing accuracy not notified.