Missing Value

[BalajiBollu]

I have a numeric variable and it has some missing values (represented as '.')... I want to convert it as a character variable with a length 1. But i don't want '.' to be converted as '.' itself instead i need it to be a space (missing notation for character variable). How to do this?

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

Since the character variable will be initialized to blank anyway, you need only make the put() conditional:

if numvar ne . then charvar = put(numvar,1.);

[BalajiBollu]

Thank you!

[RW9]

Another useful method - if you have to do lots of these, is to set options missing before and after the code:

options missing="";

...your code...

options missing=".";

[ballardw]

A third option is to use a custom format. Example

proc format ;
value myvalue
low-high=[best8.]
other=' '
;
run;

Using the above format would display all non-missing values using the best8. SAS format, any other format could be used inside the [ ] and other values as a blank. This approach has the advantage of allowing you to display more characters without changing any variable lengths that a character value would but will appear in the output. Changing the format to, or creating a different format that is similar, to:

proc format ;
value myvalue
low-high=[best8.]
other='Not Recorded'
;
run;

would display "Not Recorded" or perhaps other more meaningful text in output for the missing values.