Char Var (Length 255) will not convert to Numeric

[dmwilliams]

I have a dataset in which I created a new variable Status with coding of 0 and 1. For some reason, it automatically coded as character and at a length of 255. I've tried recoding it to numeric, but only get "." as the result. I can see that in the character field, the number is in the right-most position (@255). Is there a way to recode this to numeric and keep the "0" or "1" value at the 255 position? Here is where I created the variable "Status".

if Event="Yes" then Status=0;
else if X_Dx_Date=. then Status=0;
else Status=1;

*Event was a character value and X_Dx_Date was a date value.

Tried recoding but only get that 255 is too long with this (also tried 3. instead of 255 and got "." for all values): 

numeric_var = input(Status, 255.); 
drop Status;
rename numeric_var = Status; 
run;

Thank you! I know this must be simple, but everything I've tried has failed.

[sbxkoenk]

Use compress function to get rid of the blanks.

data abc;
a='                                                                         1';
b=input(compress(a),1.); put b=;
output;
a='                                                                         0';
b=input(compress(a),1.); put b=;
output;
run;

Koen

[dmwilliams]

What, in this case, would a and b represent? 

[ChrisNZ · Accepted solution]

> For some reason

Fix that.

1. What does the log say?

2. It seems you already have a variable STATUS. 

[dmwilliams]

Yep, there was another variable STATUS. THANK YOU!

[Kurt_Bremser]

This code

if Event="Yes" then Status=0;
else if X_Dx_Date=. then Status=0;
else Status=1;

will create a numeric variable unless a character variable with name status is already defined in the step, either by preceding code or in an incoming dataset. To determine this, follow Maxim 2 and Read The Log. If this does not immediately give you a clue, post the whole log of the step by copy/pasting it into a window opened with this button:

[dmwilliams]

Yes, nothing is immediately apparent. The log has no errors, but has this:

NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).
1874:53 1875:13

[ChrisNZ]

How do you expect to create a numerical variable when you already have a character variable of the same name? You can't.