How to check if a variable is numeric and convert to a character?

[ChrisNZ]

I would use the cat function as mentionned above.

filename xx temp;
libname xx xmlv2 '/folders/myfolders/temp.xml' automap=replace xmlmap=xx ;
data ZZ.TAB( drop=UNKNOWN_TYPE_VAR rename=(NEW_VAR=UNKNOWN_TYPE_VAR) );
  set XX.TAB;
  NEW_VAR=cat(UNKNOWN_TYPE_VAR);
run;