Modified List Input

[honglangwang]

Please see the problem in the attached figure. The upleft code produces the upright output and the downleft code produces the downright output.

The only difference between the first code and the second code is the ampersand.

Why the width specified in the informat of the modified list input can not control the input? I expect to have the same output for these two pieces of code. But it turned out not. How to explain this?

[art297 · Accepted solution]

I think your answer is in the following statement from the documentation:

In modified list input SAS uses the value of w in an informat to specify the length of previously undefined character variables.

However, in your examples, the both variables were pre-defined.

Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com

[honglangwang]

Thanks so much, Art! This is exactly what I am looking for!