topic Re: why cards stop reading values at some length in SAS Procedures

why cards stop reading values at some length

abcd123 — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 15:59:06 GMT

Hello, All

I have following code (which is very similar to my real work):

%let string=0=Emergency Services, 1=Tele Call, 2=Cusstomet Answer, 3=TAB, 4=Ptt Mute Voice, 5=Com User Voice Control, 6=Com System User Call, 7=ABC, 8=Disc, 9=XYZ, 10=Exe News, 11=ABC Ext Source, 12=MNGFR Com and BFC MUYH, 13=Not Req;

data test;

infile cards delimiter="=," ;

length var $ 30;

input @@;

_infile_ = resolve(_infile_);

input var @@;

cards;

&string

;

proc print data=test;

run;

The code runs ok; however the result is kind of strange; there is only 10 rows in the result:

Obs

var

1	0
2	Emergency Services
3	1
4	Tele Call
5	2
6	Cusstomet Answer
7	3
8	TAB
9	4
10	Ptt Mute Voice

Why does the code stop reading at Ptt Mute Voice ?

Re: why cards stop reading values at some length

DBailey — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 16:23:55 GMT

perhaps you need to specify a different lrecl...

infile cards delimiter="-," lrecl=1000 recfm=v;

Re: why cards stop reading values at some length

Tom — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 16:26:54 GMT

Because you cannot modify the lrecl of the input stream that SAS is using to read the code.

Re: why cards stop reading values at some length

Tom — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 16:30:10 GMT

filename junk temp;

data _null_;

file junk lrecl=40000;

put "&string";

run;

data test;

infile junk delimiter="=," lrecl=40000;

length var $100 ;

input var @@;

put var;

run;

Re: why cards stop reading values at some length

abcd123 — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 16:44:48 GMT

Thank you very much. Really appreciate you spending time helping me.

Just one more question: if I include that long list directly in the Cards, it works; i.e.:

data test;

infile cards delimiter="=," ;

length var $ 30;

input var @@;

cards;

0=Emergency Services, 1=Tele Call, 2=Cusstomet Answer, 3=TAB, 4=Ptt Mute Voice, 5=Com User Voice Control, 6=Com System User Call, 7=ABC, 8=Disc, 9=XYZ, 10=Exe News, 11=ABC Ext Source, 12=MNGFR Com and BFC MUYH, 13=Not Req

;

So I guess the "lrecl of the input stream that SAS is using" means something SAS use internally?

Re: why cards stop reading values at some length

LarryWorley — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 17:58:07 GMT

Methinks you have discovered some artifacts left over from the ancient days when cards statement really meant physical cards with an lrecl of 80. Looks to me like the assignment of a value to _infile_ is limited to 80 character, but when done by reading input buffer, the limit is not applied.

I would consider scanning a character variable with the string value in it, rather than trying to get the cards statement to work. Something like this would work and perhaps be a little more transparent to a maintenance program later on:

string = "&string";
i_scan = 1 ;
do until (scan(string,i_scan,",=") = '') ;
    var = scan(string,i_scan,",=") ;
    output ;
     put _n_= var= ;
     i_scan + 1 ;
end ;
run ;

Re: why cards stop reading values at some length

abcd123 — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 20:22:06 GMT

Thank you very much.