topic Convert variable to character in SAS Procedures

Convert variable to character

LauraFranziska — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 12:25:22 GMT

Hi,

I want to convert a already read in variable into a character - the opposite of e.g new_breed=breed*1

I am thankful for any help 🙂

Re: Convert variable to character

PaigeMiller — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 12:28:49 GMT

You cannot convert a numeric variable to character.

You can make a new character variable from a numeric variable.

char_var = put ( num_var, 5.);

or use whatever format works in your case

Re: Convert variable to character

LauraFranziska — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 13:02:55 GMT

Thanks for your help.

What is the 5 for?

Sorry, I'm new to SAS... 🙂

Re: Convert variable to character

Cynthia_sas — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 14:40:49 GMT

Hi:
The 5. is a FORMAT -- it is the format that SAS uses to make the conversion. So, for example, if you have this zip=123 and you want to make charzip = 00123 as a character variable then you would use the z5. format, like this:
charzip = put(zip,z5.);

Or, if you have this: area=303 and you want this: char_area (303), then you would do:
char_area=catt('(',put(area,3.),')'); (concatenate the ( and ) with the character string 303 after the PUT function.

We teach about the PUT and INPUT functions and variable conversions in the Programming 2 class.

cynthia

Re: Convert variable to character

andreas_lds — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 07:45:19 GMT

new_breed=breed*1 triggers auto-converting "breed" to numeric so that the multiplication is possible. If you are sure, that an char-variable can be converted to numeric, use the input-function. That way you don't get tons of notes in the log and with the proper format you can convert non-english numbers to numbers.

Example:

data demo;
   a = '1.016,052';
   b = input(a, commax15.);
run;