Is there an equivalent to PUT @29 X when creating a DATA STEP text string?

[PaigeMiller]

If I want to write some data to a text file, where I have an ID variable and a numeric variable X, and I want X to begin in column 29, I can use code like this

data _null_;

     set mydata;

     file "myfile.txt";

     put id $12. @29 X;

run;

But suppose I am creating a text string as a data step variable, rather than writing to a text file, and I want X to always begin in column 29, regardless of the length of the ID variable (which can be any number of characters, but less than 29 characters).

Is there an equivalent to the @29, something that works, something like this:

data _null_;

     set mydata;

     textstr=id||@29 X; /* I know this line doesn't work, but it illustrates what I am trying to do */

run;

[RW9 · Accepted solution]

Just use substr:

data temp;

  length var $200;

  var="Something here";

  substr(var,29,1)="A";

run;

[PaigeMiller]

RW9 wrote:

Just use substr:
data temp;
  length var $200;
  var="Something here";
  substr(var,29,1)="A";
run;

That works fine! Thank you! I have never used substr on the left hand side of the equal sign before.

[andreas_lds]

data work.have;

   length

      id $ 28

      text $ 30

   ;

   input id text;

   datalines;

1001 Bob

73 Susan

2434813 Bill

79746746734 Marry

;

run;

data work.want;

   set work.have;

   length mystr $ 100;

   format id $29.;

   mystr = cat(id, text);

   put mystr;

   put id $28. text;

run;