What does this statement do?

[ginak]

NUM_CBTWSN =input(NUM_CBTWS, 5.);

If NUM_CBTWSN is my new variable, what does the command "input(NUM_CBTWS, 5.)" mean? CBTWSN is the new variable and NUM_CBTWS is the old variable.

Thanks,

Gina

[MichelleHomes]

Hi Gina,

Your NUM_CBTWS is a character type variable and you are using the input function with a SAS numeric informat of 5. to convert it to a character type and store it in the new character variable NUM_CBTWSN.

You can learn more about the input function as per the documentation at, http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lefunctionsref/63354/HTML/default/viewer.htm#p19en16vskd... and see Example 1.

Cheers,

Michelle

[Patrick]

I assume Michelle's fingers didn't type what she actually wanted to say.

"...with a SAS numeric informat of 5. to convert it to a character type and store it in the new character variable NUM_CBTWSN."

Should be:

"...with a SAS numeric informat of 5. to convert it to a number and store it in the new numeric variable NUM_CBTWSN."

[MichelleHomes]

Oops... Thanks for the correction Patrick. Yes brain and fingers mis-match. 🙂

[ginak]

thank you

[Vish33]

Hi,

NUM_CBTWSN : it is the new variable created based on the existing variable NUM_CBTWS

input function is to convert a character variable type to numeric variable type.

so  your new variable NUM_CBTWSN is a numeric variable which is having a length of 5 bytes(default 8 bytes)

[ginak]

thank you

[ginak]

thank you

[art297]

I didn't see anyone point out an alternative that could also be true.  If NUM_CBTWS is a numeric variable, then the function won't return an error, but will return a missing value.

[manojinpec]

The function changes the character  variable to numeric.