Conditional converting variable type from numeric to char

[Ronein]

Hello

What is the reason for getting error in the following code.

error 484 

NOTE 484-185: Format $BEST was not found or could not be loaded.

How can I modify the code i order to fix the error?

 
***Conditional converting variable type***;
***find out if a variable is character or numeric***;
*** If it is Numeric then I need to convert it to Char;
*** If it is Char then converting is not needed***;
Data a;
input x;
cards;
111
222
333
;
run;

Data aa;
set a;
type=vtype(x);
IF type='N' then xx=compress(put(x,best12.));
else xx=compress(x);
run;



Data b;
input x $;
cards;
111
222
333
;
run;

Data bb;
set b;
type=vtype(x);
IF type='N' then xx=compress(put(x,best12.));
else xx=compress(x);
run;

[Ronein · Accepted solution]

Hello

I found solution but still didn't understand why the error appear.

***Conditional converting veraible type***;
***find out if a variable is character or numeric***;
*** If it is character then I need to convert it to Numeric;
*** If it is Numeric then converting is not needed***;
Data tbl1;
input snif;
cards;
111
222
333
;
run;

Data tbl1_new (drop=snif);
set tbl1;
type=vtype(snif);
IF type ne 'N' then snif_num=input(snif,3.);
/*If snif is char then we convert it to numeric*/
else snif_num=snif;
run;



Data tbl2;
input snif $;
cards;
111
222
333
;
run;
Data tbl2_new (drop=snif);
set tbl2;
type=vtype(snif);
IF type ne 'N' then snif_num=input(snif,3.);
/*If snif is char then we convert it to numeric*/
else snif_num=snif;
run;

/*https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Studio/Check-variable-type-then-convert-it-to-character/td-p/427603*/



***Conditional converting varaible type***;
***find out if a variable is character or numeric***;
*** If it is Numeric then I need to convert it to Char;
*** If it is Char then converting is not needed***;
***Here we must use fnunction vvalue,which create a character version of OLDVAR***;
Data a;
input x;
cards;
111
222
333
;
run;
Data aa;
set a;
  length xx $3 ;
  xx=compress(vvalue(x));
  drop x ;
  rename xx=x;
run;



Data b;
input x $;
cards;
111
222
333
;
run;
Data bb;
set b;
  length xx $3 ;
  xx=compress(vvalue(x));
  drop x ;
  rename xx=x;
run;

[Shmuel]

When you use "input x;" and there is no other statement to define x as character type

then x is by default numeric and you can code "xx=put(x,best12.)" to covert its value to char type in xx.

When you use "input x $;" - you already defined x as character type therefor

you cannot use put function with numeric format like best.

You can check a variable type by vtype() function when you don't know its type.

It doesn't check the variable's value.

[Kurt_Bremser]

If you use the put() function, the type of the first argument determines the typeof the format. Since snif is character, SAS needs a character format, and goes looking for that, but doesn't find one.