modified list input

[anming]

data list_modified;
input name $ & +3 lastname & $16. team $;
datalines;
Joseph     Joergensen White  Red
Mitchel     Mc Allister      blue
Su Ellen     Fischer Simon   green
;
run;

what does '+3' mean? without '+' only letter at position 3 is loaded for the name.  

[mkeintz]

Change the +3 to, say, +6, and look at the result for lastname.

[anming]

it works from without, +0 to +3. but from +4 the last name will be truncated.

[mkeintz]

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@anming wrote:
it works from without, +0 to +3. but from +4 the last name will be truncated.

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Truncated on which side?

What does that tell you about the function of prefixing a number with a "+"?

[anming]

https://documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=pgmsascdc&cdcVersion=9.4_3.5&docsetId=lestmtsref&docsetTarget=n...

'@n' is the column point controls. '+m' means to shift m positions to the right. 

[Tom]

Without the + the 3 means you want to read the variable NAME using COLUMN input instead of LIST MODE (modified or not).