DATA STEP problem

[Kushal_1991]

Contents of a.txt

22

333

4444

55555

But when i run this code :

data numbers;

infile ’c:\a.txt’;

input var 5.;

/* list */ ;

run;

the data in numbers.sas is saved as :

var

var1
333
55555

But when i use the list the input buffer is somewhat like this :

RULE:    ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+----

2             333 3

4             55555 5

Please explain

[Reeza]

Remove the 5. from the input statement and it reads in fine.

What do you need the 5.?

[Kushal_1991]

@Reeza I know without using 5. it will work fine......i just want to see how the buffer is reading the data. Actually I want to find out what is the default method of sas  during column input when there is less no. of columns in an observation than specified in the input statement.

[ballardw]

You used list input which defaults to using spaces as delimiters between variables.

To read the first 5 characters as a single text value you want

input var $ 1-5;

The $ says to read it as character and the 1-5 says to read everything in those 5 columns.

[Kushal_1991]

@ballardw, Its not a list input, lists dont generally use any pointer control. var $ 1-5 is column method.

[ballardw]

I mispoke, list and formatted input are mixed often enough I don't differentiate between them all the time. Your input is Formatted input; the period with the 5 makes it a numeric format with no decimals. You have not set a line pointer which would be indicated with either @n or +n.

See what you get with

input @2 var ;

then

input @5 var ;

[Kushal_1991]

@Reeza I know without using 5. it will work fine......i just want to see how the buffer is reading the data. Actually I want to find out what is the default method of sas  during column input when there is less no. of columns in an observation than specified in the input statement.