sas data input

[Rafi]

I have the below code. 

The variable State has few values with space in between (eg: South Carolina). I want to read those values without modifying the data but modifying the input statement. Any kind of suggestion is appreciated.

data prog;
input State $ EnterDate Size;
datalines;
Delaware 07DEC1787 1955
Pennsylvania 12DEC1787 44820
New Jersey 18DEC1787 7418
Georgia 02JAN1788 57918
Connecticut 09JAN1788 4845
Massachusetts 06FEB1788 7838
Maryland 28APR1788 9775
South Carolina 23MAY1788 30111
;
run;

[LinusH]

In your real data, are you sure that you have a space (with the same HEX code) as delimiter?

If yes, try to get new data, one format is with all char values embedded within double quotes.

If that's not possible, I would read the whole record into one variable, then search for the start position of your date, and assign preceding string to state.

[RW9]

You can't.  There is no logical way of knowing if a space is related to the text, or as a delimiter.  Now you could process the imported string, however I would suggest you get the file sent in a decent robust format such as CSV.

[Astounding]

As others have suggested, it might be easier to modify the data.  But it can be done.  For example:

data prog;

length state1 state2 $ 15 state $ 20;

informat EnterDate date9.;

input @;

if countw(_infile_)=4 then do;

   input state1 $ state2 $ EnterDate  size;

   state = trim(state1) || ' ' || state2;

end;

else input state $ EnterDate size;

format EnterDate yymmdd10.;

drop state1 state2;
datalines;
Delaware 07DEC1787 1955
Pennsylvania 12DEC1787 44820
New Jersey 18DEC1787 7418
Georgia 02JAN1788 57918
Connecticut 09JAN1788 4845
Massachusetts 06FEB1788 7838
Maryland 28APR1788 9775
South Carolina 23MAY1788 30111
;

Notice that you cannot read EnterDate as a numeric variable unless you apply an informat.

Also note, this code is untested.  It's probably fine as is, but may require small changes.

Good luck.

[Tom]

If you can controll the formatting of the input file then force there to be two spaces between the state name and the date. Then you can use the & modifier on the input statement. Otherwise you will need to add some logic. In this case since state names do not contain digits and your date values always start with a digit it is easy.

data prog;
  length State $20 EnterDate Size 8;
  input State $20. @;
  x=indexc(state,'0123456789');
  if x>0 then state=substr(state,1,x-1);
  else x=length(state)+2;
  input @x EnterDate date9. size ;
  format enterdate date9. size comma7.;
  drop x;
datalines;
Delaware 07DEC1787 1955
Pennsylvania 12DEC1787 44820
New Jersey 18DEC1787 7418
Georgia 02JAN1788 57918
Connecticut 09JAN1788 4845
Massachusetts 06FEB1788 7838
Maryland 28APR1788 9775
South Carolina 23MAY1788 30111
;
run;