How to input blank char value in dataline

[Aexor]

data country;
input country_ID  state $ country_name $;
datalines;

1 Texas Colin
. Texas Dallas
3  .     Deklab
;
run; 

I have below dataset here if i am using " "  in 3rd row , I am getting lost card error but if i am using "." Which we used for numeric missing value. I am getting the o/p. Please tell me Why this is happening  

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

Since you do not use an INFILE statement with the DSD option, a sequence of delimiters (blanks) will be read as one delimiter, causing a skip to the next dataline.

When using the default $w. informat, a single dot will also be interpreted as a missing character value.

[Aexor]

Thanks !! Yes if we use infile then we can easily specify DSD .
I just wanted to confirm that while using default format for char variable we can use '.' or is there any way out for this ?

[Kurt_Bremser]

Whenever I need to read missing values (or values containing blanks) from datalines, I use INFILE, DSD and DLM= with a suitable delimiter (comma, pipe, ...)