topic Re: How to find out the longest of value for an char variable? in SAS Enterprise Guide

How to find out the longest of value for an char variable?

Nancy05 — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 22:00:06 GMT

Hi,

I have an variable called "SUPPORT_CUST_NAME". It is defined as "Char" type with leng of 100. it is labled as "SupportCustName".

Dataset name is "ELT.ELT_SEC_SUPPORT_BY".

The problem is that the value of "SUPPORT_CUST_NAME" seems chopped much less than 100. Many names are chopped. I need to find the longest value to confirm my finding?

How do I find out the longest length of value for "SUPPORT_CUST_NAME" with its primay key "CR_APPL_NO"?

Please help with SAS code!

Thanks!

Nancy

Re: How to find out the longest of value for an char variable?

Astounding — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 22:44:34 GMT

Before you examine the lengths, the first step would be to examine the format. If a variable is defined as $100 but has a format of $50., you will only see the first 50 characters.

Re: How to find out the longest of value for an char variable?

Nancy05 — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 23:16:43 GMT

How to write the code to find out?

Here is my code to look at the table:

data elendSUPPORTBY;
	set ELTElend.ELT_SEC_SUPPORT_BY;


Title "Support by in ELT ELEND";
proc print data= elendSUPPORTBY;
run;

Thanks!

Re: How to find out the longest of value for an char variable?

SASKiwi — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 23:33:49 GMT

proc sql;
  select max(length(SUPPORT_CUST_NAME))
  from ELTElend.ELT_SEC_SUPPORT_BY
  ;
quit;

Re: How to find out the longest of value for an char variable?

Astounding — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 00:06:33 GMT

The easiest way to find out formats would be:

proc contents data=eltelend.elt_sec_support_by;

run;

Re: How to find out the longest of value for an char variable?

Nancy05 — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 03:45:46 GMT

Hi SASKiwi,

Thank you so much for the SAS SQL query! The SAS query works very well.

Does the embedded sql query follow standard SQL syntax? Do they follow Oracle or DB2 or Microsoft standard?

Thanks!

Nancy

Re: How to find out the longest of value for an char variable?

Nancy05 — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 04:04:32 GMT

Hi Astounding,

Thank you for your suggestion. Yes. I have tried proc contents, that is how I get to know this variable SUPPORT_CUST_NAME is char type with length of 100. But somehow only display 40 chars.

It may due to an error in ETL process.

Thank you so mcuh for help!

Nancy

Re: How to find out the longest of value for an char variable?

Reeza — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 05:09:50 GMT

SAS SQL doesn't necessarily follow ANSI SQL standards. Most basic queries such as the one here, can be used in both Oracle and SQL.

SAS FEDSQL is ANSI standard.

Oracle SQL is different than Microsoft SQL.

You can use SQL pass through if you want to pass a query directly to your server.