topic WARNING: Multiple lengths.... in SAS Enterprise Guide

WARNING: Multiple lengths....

bhca60 — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 17:48:18 GMT

I'm getting this warning for diagnosis code which has varying lengths - the longest (including the decimal) is 7.

How do I fix it so that I stop getting this error? I tried the below:


23         data aa_dd;
24         length icd $7;
25         merge aa(in=ina)
26         	  diag;
27         by claimHeaderId;
28         if ina;
29         
30         run;

WARNING: Multiple lengths were specified for the variable icd by input data set(s). This can cause truncation of data.

Re: WARNING: Multiple lengths....

AMSAS — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 17:53:33 GMT

Compare the variable lengths in the 2 datasets aa and diag
My guess is you have a common variable on both datasets that has different lengths defined.
You might want to run a PROC CONTENTS on them both

Here's a simple example:

data test10 ;
	length a $10 ;
	a="1234567890" ;
	output ;
run ;

data test8 ;
	length a $8 ;
	a="12345678" ;
	output ;
run ;

data join ;
	set test8 test10 ;
run ;

and here's the log:

2    data test10 ;
3        length a $10 ;
4        a="1234567890" ;
5        output ;
6    run ;

NOTE: The data set WORK.TEST10 has 1 observations and 1 variables.
NOTE: At least one W.D format was too small for the number to be printed. The decimal may be
      shifted by the "BEST" format.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.13 seconds
      cpu time            0.00 seconds


7
8    data test8 ;
9        length a $8 ;
10       a="12345678" ;
11       output ;
12   run ;

NOTE: The data set WORK.TEST8 has 1 observations and 1 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.00 seconds
      cpu time            0.01 seconds


13
14   data join ;
15       set test8 test10 ;
16   run ;

WARNING: Multiple lengths were specified for the variable a by input data set(s). This can cause
         truncation of data.
NOTE: There were 1 observations read from the data set WORK.TEST8.
NOTE: There were 1 observations read from the data set WORK.TEST10.
NOTE: The data set WORK.JOIN has 2 observations and 1 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.02 seconds
      cpu time            0.03 seconds

Re: WARNING: Multiple lengths....

bhca60 — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 18:01:28 GMT

Yes, thank you; in one set the icd is $50 and the other is $100. Would I just do the same code only change it to length icd $100?

Re: WARNING: Multiple lengths....

AMSAS — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 18:12:52 GMT

Yes, typically you would want to use the length of the longest character variable
If you run the simple test code, you'll notice that the work.join dataset ends up truncating the second observations from "1234567890" to "12345678" (Not Good)