Pb when I use an informat I defined

[PierreYvesILY]

hello dear SAS experts,

I used the following Code to define an informat:

/* Monatsformate für Erfolgsplan 																*/
data monatefp;
length start $2 label 3;
input start label;
datalines;
A 1
B 2
C 3
D 4
E 5
F 6
G 7
H 8
I 9
J 10
K 11
L 12
M 21
N 22
O 23
P 24
Q 25
R 26
S 27
T 28
U 29
V 30
W 31
X 32
Y 33
;
run;
data monatefpf;
set monatefp end=last;
retain fmtname 'Monatefpf' type 'J';
output;
run;
proc format cntlin=Monatefpf fmtlib; run;

this Code produced the following informat:

                            ----------------------------------------------------------------------------                            
                            |       FORMAT NAME: ERFGPLNF LENGTH:    2   NUMBER OF VALUES:    1        |                            
                            |   MIN LENGTH:   1  MAX LENGTH:  40  DEFAULT LENGTH:   2  FUZZ: STD       |                            
                            |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|                            
                            |START           |END             |LABEL  (VER. V7|V8   19MAR2021:17:30:29)|                            
                            |----------------+----------------+----------------------------------------|                            
                            |               .|               .|33                                      |                            
                            ----------------------------------------------------------------------------                            
                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                    
                            ----------------------------------------------------------------------------                            
                            |                   INFORMAT NAME: @$ERFGPLNF LENGTH: 2                    |                            
                            |   MIN LENGTH:   1  MAX LENGTH:  40  DEFAULT LENGTH:   2  FUZZ:        0  |                            
                            |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|                            
                            |START           |END             |INVALUE(VER. 9.4     19MAR2021:17:52:28)|                            
                            |----------------+----------------+----------------------------------------|                            
                            |A               |A               |1                                       |                            
                            |B               |B               |2                                       |                            
                            |C               |C               |3                                       |                            
                            |D               |D               |4                                       |                            
                            |E               |E               |5                                       |                            
                            |F               |F               |6                                       |                            
                            |G               |G               |7                                       |                            
                            |H               |H               |8                                       |                            
                            |I               |I               |9                                       |                            
                            |J               |J               |10                                      |                            
                            |K               |K               |11                                      |                            
                            |L               |L               |12                                      |                            
                            |M               |M               |21                                      |                            
                            |N               |N               |22                                      |                            
                            |O               |O               |23                                      |                            
                            |P               |P               |24                                      |                            
                            |Q               |Q               |25                                      |                            
                            |R               |R               |26                                      |                            
                            |S               |S               |27                                      |                            
                            |T               |T               |28                                      |                            
                            |U               |U               |29                                      |                            
                            |V               |V               |30                                      |                            
                            |W               |W               |31                                      |                            
                            |X               |X               |32                                      |                            
                            |Y               |Y               |33                                      |                            
                            ----------------------------------------------------------------------------                            
                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                    
                            ----------------------------------------------------------------------------                            
                            |                   INFORMAT NAME: @$MONATEFPF LENGTH: 2                   |                            
                            |   MIN LENGTH:   1  MAX LENGTH:  40  DEFAULT LENGTH:   2  FUZZ:        0  |                            
                            |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|                            
                            |START           |END             |INVALUE(VER. 9.4     19MAR2021:17:57:18)|                            
                            |----------------+----------------+----------------------------------------|                            
                            |A               |A               |1                                       |                            
                            |B               |B               |2                                       |                            
                            |C               |C               |3                                       |                            
                            |D               |D               |4                                       |                            
                            |E               |E               |5                                       |                            
                            |F               |F               |6                                       |                            
                            |G               |G               |7                                       |                            
                            -----------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------                            
                            |                   INFORMAT NAME: @$MONATEFPF LENGTH: 2                   |                            
                            |   MIN LENGTH:   1  MAX LENGTH:  40  DEFAULT LENGTH:   2  FUZZ:        0  |                            
                            |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|                            
                            |START           |END             |INVALUE                         (CONT'D)|                            
                            |----------------+----------------+----------------------------------------|                            
                            |H               |H               |8                                       |                            
                            |I               |I               |9                                       |                            
                            |J               |J               |10                                      |                            
                            |K               |K               |11                                      |                            
                            |L               |L               |12                                      |                            
                            |M               |M               |21                                      |                            
                            |N               |N               |22                                      |                            
                            |O               |O               |23                                      |                            
                            |P               |P               |24                                      |                            
                            |Q               |Q               |25                                      |                            
                            |R               |R               |26                                      |                            
                            |S               |S               |27                                      |                            
                            |T               |T               |28                                      |                            
                            |U               |U               |29                                      |                            
                            |V               |V               |30                                      |                            
                            |W               |W               |31                                      |                            
                            |X               |X               |32                                      |                            
                            |Y               |Y               |33                                      |                            
                            ----------------------------------------------------------------------------                            

I Need to use it to transform the variable Monat_O into a numeric Variable and I tried:

data Erfolgsplan_AG_Gesamt /*(drop=Monat_O)*/;

set Daten4Dashboard1 (keep=Monat Monat_O);

*if stufe in ('AG_FIL', 'AG_GESAMT', 'Mitte/Ost') then MARKTREGION_BT = Stufe;

*if stufe in ('AG_FIL', 'AG_GESAMT', 'Mitte/Ost') then NLBEZ_BT = Stufe;

Monat_test1=input(Monat_O, $Monatefpf.);

Monat_test2=input(Monat_O, Monatefpf.);

run;

the result is:

I have 2 Problems:

- I Need the Monat_test1 or Monat_test2 to be NUMERIC

- I see some Errors using the informat (L => L instead of 12 for instance)

How can I solve this?

Regards

[Reeza]

What does Pb stand for? Peanut butter?

[PierreYvesILY]

Pb = problem

[Reeza]

Changing it to I, and using it without the $ is important because you've defined both types by now. Or makes sure to test it in a brand new session.

This works as expected.

data monatefp;
length start $2 label 3;
input start label;
datalines;
A 1
B 2
C 3
D 4
E 5
F 6
G 7
H 8
I 9
J 10
K 11
L 12
M 21
N 22
O 23
P 24
Q 25
R 26
S 27
T 28
U 29
V 30
W 31
X 32
Y 33
;
run;
data monatefpf;
set monatefp end=last;
retain fmtname 'testFormat' type 'I';
output;
run;
proc format cntlin=Monatefpf ; run;

data want /*(drop=Monat_O)*/;

set monatefp ;



Monat_test1 = input(start, testFormat.);


run;

[Tom · Accepted solution]

Look up the meaning of the TYPE variable in the CNTLIN dataset.

J ->  Character informat.

I -> Numeric informat.

[FreelanceReinh]

Hello @PierreYvesILY,

The two values in column Monat_O which were left unchanged by your original character informat, 'J' and 'L', suggest that in those observations variable Monat_O (length >1, right?) contains more than just these single letters: possibly invisible characters. In the case of trailing additional characters the problem should vanish after changing the type of the informat to numeric (type='I') because the default length is then 1. With leading invisible characters, however, the numeric informat would produce missing numeric values.

I would identify ($HEXw. format) and then remove (e.g., COMPRESS function) the unexpected characters from variable Monat_O in any case.