Conversion of character to numeric variable in SAS

[oab]

I am trying to convert a character variable to numeric

I have a column of data with the following attributes:

Data Set Name: woleaim1

Variable: age

Type: Char

Len: 3

Format: $3.

Informat: $3.

These data are formatted as character and I want to convert it to numeric. I tried the following command 

data woleaim1;
age_num = input(age, $3.);
run;

This is the error message below:

NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).
588:23
NOTE: Variable age is uninitialized.
NOTE: The data set WORK.WOLEAIM1 has 1 observations and 2 variables.
 
Thanks!

[oab]

I have a column of data with the following attributes:

Data Set Name: woleaim1

Variable: age

Type: Char

Len: 3

Format: $3.

Informat: $3.

These data are formatted as character and I want to convert it to numeric. I tried the following command 

data woleaim1;
age_num = input(age, $3.);
run;

This is the error message below:

NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).
588:23
NOTE: Variable age is uninitialized.
NOTE: The data set WORK.WOLEAIM1 has 1 observations and 2 variables.
 
Thanks!

[novinosrin · Accepted solution]

data have;
input age $;
cards;
12
15
43
;

data want;
set have ;
newage=input(age,8.);
run;

[oab]

Thank you. It worked!