SAS 9.3 vs SAS 9.4 - .CSV export - 9.3 = ," ", vs ,,

[mrtball]

Hello,

We are currently in the progress of exporting SAS 9.3 DI jobs to SAS 9.4 post installation of SAS 9.4. Our basic validation to confirm that SAS 9.4 is processing data in the same way is to compare the output produced so that it matches exactly.

However I have run into one DI job which in SAS 9.3 produces a .CSV export files which exports data for a variable with blank or missing values as ," ", where as in SAS 9.4 this same variable is exported as a 2 consecutive comma's i.e. ,,

The column in question is char format. 

Just wondering does anybody know how we can correct this difference in SAS 9.4? (maybe a system option or something?)

Thanks In Advance,

[LinusH]

We need to see the code to able to help.
Verify that the same code is generated between the two versions.

[Reeza]

Verify that the column is character in both versions.

[mrtball]

Hello Both,

Thank you for your responses, whilst preparing the 9.3 & 9.4 code comparisons to attach to this discussion it led me to running the full 9.3 code in our 9.4 environment - the output is the same (as the 9.4 output = ,,), which leads me to think this is a environment level difference (config / hot fix / maintenance release etc.) between 9.3 and 9.4 and not linked to the code in anyway. I will update with any findings.

Many Thanks,