concatenating two data sets

[mona4u]

Hi, 

I'm trying the combine two datasets sequentially but I got issues bc of the variables length were different the data sets combined but the problem when I tried to print out the result I got some issues. 

this is the error that I got 

ERROR: Invalid characters were present in the data.

ERROR: An error occurred while processing text data.

I will copy the log and the contents of each dataset  

189

190 data mm1;

191 set oricclose harmclose_O;

192 run;

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOTE: There were 1083 observations read from the data set WORK.ORICCLOSE.

NOTE: There were 677 observations read from the data set WORK.HARMCLOSE_O.

NOTE: The data set WORK.MM1 has 1760 observations and 21 variables.

NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):

real time 0.00 seconds

user cpu time 0.00 seconds

system cpu time 0.01 seconds

memory 4971.28k

OS Memory 36784.00k

Timestamp 05/09/2018 01:46:16 PM

Step Count 177 Switch Count 2

Page Faults 0

Page Reclaims 860

Page Swaps 0

Voluntary Context Switches 11

Involuntary Context Switches 0

Block Input Operations 0

Block Output Operations 4104

193

194 proc print data=mm1; run;

ERROR: Invalid characters were present in the data.

ERROR: An error occurred while processing text data.

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.

NOTE: There were 1760 observations read from the data set WORK.MM1.

NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):

real time 1.82 seconds

user cpu time 1.82 seconds

system cpu time 0.00 seconds

memory 4050.43k

OS Memory 35240.00k

Timestamp 05/09/2018 01:46:18 PM

Step Count 178 Switch Count 0

Page Faults 0

Page Reclaims 839

Page Swaps 0

Voluntary Context Switches 0

Involuntary Context Switches 61

Block Input Operations 0

Block Output Operations 600

oricclose contents 

Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes# Variable Type Len Format Informat Label141619713201012181711691231548521

Assigned_User	Char	43	$43.	$43.	Assigned User
Category	Char	19	$19.	$19.	Category
Closed_Date	Num	8	YYMMDD10.		Closed Date
Country	Char	32	$32.	$32.	Country
Created_Date	Num	8	YYMMDD10.		Created Date
Days_Open	Char	15	$15.	$15.	Days Open
Event_Start_Date	Char	71	$71.	$71.	Event Start Date
Initiated_User	Char	24	$24.	$24.	Initiated User
Last_Action_Date	Num	8	YYMMDD10.		Last Action Date
Last_Query_Entry	Char	423	$423.	$423.	Last Query Entry
Location	Char	15	$15.	$15.	Location
PAC_No	Char	17	$17.	$17.	PAC No
Preferred_Terms	Char	124	$124.	$124.	Preferred Terms
Query_ID	Char	15	$15.	$15.	Query ID
Query_Title	Char	53	$53.	$53.	Query Title
Site_Number	Char	15	$15.	$15.	Site Number
Status	Char	15	$15.	$15.	Status
Subject_Number	Char	22	$22.	$22.	Subject Number
Verbatim_Terms	Char	205	$205.	$205.	Verbatim Terms
Visit_Name	Char	15	$15.	$15.	Visit Name
protocol	Char	15

.HARMCLOSE_O contents  Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes# Variable Type Len Format Informat Label141619713201012181711691231548521

Assigned_User	Char	43	$43.	$43.	Assigned User
Category	Char	15	$15.	$15.	Category
Closed_Date	Num	8	DATE9.		Closed Date
Country	Char	25	$25.	$25.	Country
Created_Date	Num	8	DATE9.		Created Date
Days_Open	Char	15	$15.	$15.	Days Open
Event_Start_Date	Char	239	$239.	$239.	Event Start Date
Initiated_User	Char	25	$25.	$25.	Init User
Last_Action_Date	Num	8	DATE9.		Last Action Date
Last_Query_Entry	Char	1072	$1072.	$1072.	Last Query Details
Location	Char	15	$15.	$15.	Location
PAC_No	Char	15	$15.	$15.	PAC No
Preferred_Terms	Char	914	$914.	$914.	Preferred Terms
Query_ID	Char	15	$15.	$15.	Query ID
Query_Title	Char	254	$254.	$254.	Query Title
Site_Number	Char	15	$15.	$15.	Site Number
Status	Char	15	$15.	$15.	Status
Subject_Number	Char	22	$22.	$22.	Subject Number
Verbatim_Terms	Char	741	$741.	$741.	Verbatim Terms
Visit_Name	Char	15	$15.	$15.	Visit Name
protocol	Char	15

---

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
I would fix the length issue first. You can do that by simply using a LENGTH statement BEFORE any SET statement in your code. Make sure that the LENGTH statement declares a size big enough for the longest value.

Then, after you fix the length, work on the invalid character issue. This could be due to encoding issue on your system:
https://communities.sas.com/t5/ODS-and-Base-Reporting/ERROR-Invalid-characters-were-present-in-the-d... or
https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Analytics-U/PROC-ANOVA-ERROR-invalid-characters-were-present-in-t... or
https://communities.sas.com/t5/General-SAS-Programming/French-Accents-in-SAS/td-p/316850

The common issue in all of the above postings was the fact that the data had characters that could not be processed by SAS. So that means you'll need to either work with the people who sent you the data or change your settings/language/encoding to allow you to read the data correctly.

It is possible that the data is in some other encoding, in which case, you might have to find out from the people who sent you the data, what encoding or language or character set to use.

But first, I recommend fixing the length issue.

Cynthia

[mona4u]

I use the same datasets in another program and I never had this error but when I try to combine them I got this error 

[Cynthia_sas]

Then you have to run PROC CONTENTS on each dataset separately to resolve the difference in lengths. If you compare the variables, you should find that the variables listed in the log have different lengths in the files you are bringing together. The message you see is just a WARNING that possible truncation could occur. You do NOT have to fix the lengths, if you can live with the WARNING messages. However, it is a best practice to fix the length issue to avoid the WARNING.

For the character issue, without actually seeing the data or understanding what the exact cause of the invalid character message is, it is impossible to comment. You might open a track with Tech Support on the invalid character issue but you will need to be able to send them your data and help them figure out things like your language setting and encoding setting.

Cynthia

[ballardw]

---

@mona4u wrote:

I use the same datasets in another program and I never had this error but when I try to combine them I got this error 

---

Statements like:

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

are not errors. They are telling you that may have data issues after combining the data.

A brief fairly obvious result in this demonstration.

data work.data1;
   x="Short text";
run;
data work.data2;
   x="Some much longer text in this field";
run;

data work.combined;
   set work.data1
       work.data2
   ;
run;
proc print data=work.combined;
run;

which shows that the value of X was truncated when combined this way. The correction as @Cynthia_sas is easy:

data work.combined;
   /* the 35 below comes from the length of X in data2*/
   length x $ 35; 
   set work.data1
       work.data2
   ;
run;
proc print data=work.combined;
run;

If the data sets have a different encoding then issue of invalid characters might not appear until attempting to combine the data as a single data set can only have one type of encoding.

[Reeza]

It happens when you're dealing with a text variable with specific characters that SAS doesn't recognize. 

I seem to get it more in SAS UE than on my desktop edition. 

If you use the exact same data set but don't work with that variable the error does not appear. Or if you filter out the offending records you don't get the issue. 

I usually get this when I'm working with the Canadian Census data and the french names have the extra symbols that are problematic.