topic Re: Error when importing data into sas in SAS Procedures

Error when importing data into sas

brophymj — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 14:40:43 GMT

I'm getting an error message when I try to import a dataset where one of the fields is a number. the reason for the error is that all the cells contain a number except one cell that contains a blank.

data help

infile start DLM = ',' DSD MISSOVER LRECL = 10000;

format field1 8.

field2 8.

...

;

input field1

field2

...

;

run;

Error message I'm getting is:

Invalid data for field1 in line 36371 1-1

I know this is just a cosmetic thing as it doesn't really cause problems with my end result, i just want to tidy it up so that I don't get those nasty looking errors. I would of though the blank cell would be left blank without error.

Any clean approaches here?

Re: Error when importing data into sas

Tom — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 14:46:02 GMT

Actual blanks will not cause that problem. Must be some other character.

Re: Error when importing data into sas

brophymj — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 15:14:07 GMT

Hi Tom, yes you are right. The cell has a character which is an error. The character is "/*". Is there code you can put in the above that deletes this case so that no error appears in the log?

Thanks

Re: Error when importing data into sas

ballardw — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 15:21:38 GMT

You can suppress the message using:

input field1 ??

I would be cautious with that unless you know that the only thing that will cause that is a limited case.

Another approach I have used is to create a custom informat to specify specific known strings as missing numeric. That way I get a message when unexpected values show up.

proc format;

invalue myproblemfield

'/*' = .

;

run;

and use

informat field1 myproblemfield.; before the input statement.