Difference between dlm=',' and dsd

[GreggB]

I'm working through one of the free elearning SAS modules and I don't get the difference in how SAS reads the data using dlm=',' versus dsd.  (I want to make a 100% on the quiz).  🙂

data work.donations;
infile "&path/donation.csv" dsd missover;
input empid q1 q2 q3 q4;
run;

data work.donations;
infile "&path/donation.csv" dlm=',' missover;
input empid q1 q2 q3 q4;
run;

[Astounding · Accepted solution]

Both tools use commas as delimiters.  The result is different when the incoming data contains consecutive commas.

With consecutive commas, DSD treats each comma separately.  Each comma marks the end of a separate variable on the INPUT statement.

However, dlm= treats consecutive commas as one long delimiter.  Consecutive commas mark the end of just one variable.