Variable in both Numeric and Character

[mlogan]

Hi All,

Can I put both and Character and Numeric under the same variable and assign the variable type as Numeric? I wanted to merge these two table with set command and it says Table 1 code is Numeric and Table 2 Code is Character. 

Table 1:

Code

1

2

3

4

5

Table 2:

Code	Name
1	John
5	Clara
B	Mike
4	Dave
A	Laura

Can I merge them like this with a set command so that all codes come?

Code	Name
1
2
3
4
5
1	John
5	Clara
B	Mike
4	Dave
A	Laura

[M_Maldonado]

probably not.

create a dummy variable in table 1 to make it character before merging it to table 2.

good luck!

[Kurt_Bremser]

No. A variable defined as numeric can only hold numerical values.

[RW9]

As has been mentioned above structurally you can only have a column which is of character or numeric.  You can however do this in one step:

data tab1;

  input code;

datalines;

1

2

3

4

5

;

run;

data tab2;

  input code $ name $;

datalines;

1 John

5 Clara

B Mike

4 Dave

A Laura

;

run;

proc sql;

  create table WANT as

  select  put(CODE,1.) as CODE,

          "" as NAME

  from    TAB1

  union all

  select  *

  from    TAB2;

quit;