Reading in .txt file with delimiter where lines wrap

[raivester]

I have a .txt file from our data provider that I am trying to read in. The file uses ! as its delimiter; and while most observations fit on a line, some observations wrap. Are there any tricks to reading this data in so that these wrapped lines do not show up as separate obseravations?

[ballardw]

Are you sure that the lines "wrap" to a new line? Some file viewers depending on settings will make it appear that a line continues on the next when it is still a single line.

Quick test would be to use proc import with the file and tell it to use the ! character as a delimiter and see if you get data more or less as expected.

The "tricks" would involve the specific files and why the wrap.

[Patrick]

The details will make the difference. If a single logical row of data can really be written physically on two lines exactly like in below sample then FLOWOVER might do the job for you.

data demo;
  infile datalines flowover dlm='!';
  input a b c;
  datalines;
1!2!3
4!5
6
7
8!9
;