Got table with numerics-only, want to dynamically cast all to char

[EinarRoed]

I've got a table with around 50 variables. Roughly 30 numerics, and 20 chars. Need to create a checksum that's unique for all the 50 variables.

I'm currently casting the 30 numerics to character. Then I combinine all 50 char values into 1 variable that I use in SHA256 to create the actual checksum.

I'd like to make this more dynamic. So that I don't need to use 1 PUT-statement for each variable I cast from numeric to character.

I've written code that identifies all numeric variables and creates a temporary table for them. Is there a way to tell SAS to "cast all variables in this table to character"?

[maguiremq]

Can you provide some example data? One way I think off the top of my head is through an array.

Here's what I'm talking about:

data have;
input a b c d;
datalines;
1 2 3 4
;
run;

data want;
	set have;
	array all_num [*] _numeric_;
	array all_char [*] $1. chars1 - chars4;
	do i = 1 to dim(all_num);
		all_char[i] = put(all_num[i], 1.);
	end;
run;

[data_null__]

Could you use CATS to do the heavy lifting?

data class2;
   set sashelp.class;
   length chk $256;
   chk = sha256(cats(of name--weight));
   run;