Numericand Character Values

[deleted_user]

I am importing data from EXCEL to SAS using the builtin "IMPORT" in SAS menu. One of the variables is "diagnosis code" which is both numeric (e.g. 29963 ) and character (V375). I want the variable to be character, the problem is that after importing to SAS, in the new SAS data all the codes that start with a character (V375) are set to missing. Is there a reason why importing is not working? What is the easiest solution?

[deleted_user]

When you submit the import SAS submits some code for you. Recall the code and change the informat from numeric to character. Then sbmit that code. You could then save it for future use.

SAS will set the variable type to the type of the first occurence of the variable that it finds in the imported file. So If by chance the first occirence was character, then it would give the variable a character type.

Hope that helps.

[LinusH]

Probably does your alphanumerical data appear after the 20th row. so IMPORT spots only numerical values when deciding how to store the column in SAS. To resolve this, set GUESSINGROWS option to a higher value.

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/proc/59565/HTML/default/a000312413.htm

/Linus