data input problem

[sbb]

You'll notice in my post/reply, there is a SASLOG that demonstrates the conversion technique, which would mimic the IMPORT, I believe. The data-string goes from character, to numeric, and back to character, remaining intact.

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
You are showing the log of the original program. I would be more interested in the log of the CHANGED program. For example, if I run THIS program
[pre]
data WORK.TEMP ;
infile datalines
delimiter = ',' DSD firstobs=2 ;
informat FILING_ID $14. ;
informat name $8.;
format filing_id $14.;
input filing_id $ name $;
put _all_;
return;
datalines;
filing_id name
12345678901234,alan
22223333444455,bob
;
run;

proc print data=work.temp;
run;
[/pre]

Which essentially reduces the program to only 2 variables, but uses the INPUT and INFORMAT you -said- you used -- then in the log, I see that the number is a character string. So there's still something happening when you run the CHANGED program that is not right.

My output in the LOG shows the FILING_ID as a character string with ALL digits and no E notation.
[pre]
66 data WORK.TEMP ;
67 infile datalines
68 delimiter = ',' DSD firstobs=2 ;
69 informat FILING_ID $14. ;
70 informat name $8.;
71 format filing_id $14.;
72 input filing_id $ name $;
73 put _all_;
74 return;
75 datalines;

FILING_ID=12345678901234 name=alan _ERROR_=0 _N_=1
FILING_ID=22223333444455 name=bob _ERROR_=0 _N_=2
NOTE: The data set WORK.TEMP has 2 observations and 2 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.01 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds


79 ;
80 run;

[/pre]

cynthia