How to work properly with the if else statements in SAS EG?

[AK100]

With below code I tend to make a new column based on the values of an other column. When I click run and check the 'column_x' I see just the letter 'F' for criteria 'N' instead of the word `Fixed` and for the else I see just the letter 'N' instead of 'Not fixed'.

data want;
set have;
if index(criteria,'N') then colum_x= "Fixed";
else column_x= "Not fixed";
run;

It seems like its just taking the first letters inside the parenthesis. Why is that and how can I fix it? 

[Astounding · Accepted solution]

This happens because your new variable isn't really new.  HAVE already contains COLUMN_X (or perhaps COLUM_X, whichever spelling you are using) and it has a defined length of $1.  You can change that by adding a LENGTH statement before the SET statement:

data want;
length column_x $ 9;
set have;
if index(criteria,'N') then column_x= "Fixed";
else column_x= "Not fixed";
run;

[ballardw]

If column_x were actually a new variable then the values you would see would be "Fixed" and "Not f".

If you do not explicitly set the length of a new variable then the first use will set the length. In this case that would be "Fixed" which is length 5. So "Not fixed" would be truncated to 5 characters.

[Kurt_Bremser]

Maxim 47.