ERROR 48-59: The format $Z was not found or could not be loaded.

[BrucePrater]

I have seen this issue addressed in other posts and I know that a statement like:

put(v1,z5.);

requires that v1 be numeric.

I have multiple datasets that I am trying to append where sometime v1 is numeric and sometimes is character--v1 is a zipcode and when it is numeric the leading zero sometimes needs to be restored. In files where the zipcode is charachter, the lengths vary from $5 to $10.

So I want to standardize all zipcodes before appending.

I have tried 2 approaches using the TYPE column from a PROC CONTENTS output to determine how to treat the field in different files, so I can build 1 macro to handle both types of cases.

Approach 1:

data t;

input @1 zip $3. @5 typ 8.;

cards;

949 2

31  2

768 2

74  2

270 2

173 2

100 2

755 2

476 2

454 2

415 2

;

data t_;

set t;

if typ=2 then zipcode=put(input(zip,8.),z5.);

else if typ=1 then zipcode=put(z,z5.);

run;

Approach 2:

data t;

input @1 zip $3. @5 typ 8.;

cards;

949 2

31  2

768 2

74  2

270 2

173 2

100 2

755 2

476 2

454 2

415 2

;

data t_;

set t;

if typ=2 then goto zchar;

else goto znum;

zchar:

zipcode=put(input(zip,8.),z5.);

goto continue;

znum:

zipcode=put(zip,z5.);

goto continue;

continue:

x1=typ*9;

x2=typ/x1;

x3=(.985*typ)+(.375*x2);

run;

Both approaches fail to pass over the if-then-else condition that does not apply.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

[Tom · Accepted solution]

508   data _null_;

509     char='12345';

510     num=12345;

511     zip1 = put(input(cats(char),8.),z5.);

512     zip2 = put(input(cats(num),8.),z5.);

513     put (_all_) (=);

514   run;

char=12345 num=12345 zip1=12345 zip2=12345

[BrucePrater]

Excellent sir!

Thank you so much.