Leading zeroes

[deleted_user]

Hi,

I'm trying to put leading zeroes into one of the fields & get this error.
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832 input dataid $ cls_lab_id $ aliquot $ type $ date $ audit $;
NOTE: SCL source line.
833 cls_lab_id = put (cls_lab_id, Z6.);
---
48
ERROR 48-59: The format $Z was not found or could not be loaded.
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Any idea? Thank you.
James

[DouglasMartin]

It's because cls_lab_id is a character field, but Z6. is a numeric format. SAS tried substituting $Z. instead (i.e. a character format), but there's no such format as $Z.

You could either make appropriate use of string manipulation functions (the best idea unless you are sure there are only digits in cls_lab_id), or if it contains only digits you could say something like
cls_lab_id=(put(input(cls_lab_id,6.),Z6.);

[deleted_user]

Thank you!