Pointer control

[JatinRai]

Support.sas.com states the following:

@n
moves the pointer to column n.

Range: a positive integer
Tip: If n is not an integer, SAS truncates the decimal value and uses only the integer value. If n is zero or negative, the pointer moves to column 1.

But when I tried the following code a syntax error appears:
data test;
infile tests obs=5;
input ID $ Name & $14. @-27 (a1-a5) (3.) Level $;
input ID $ Name & $14. @-27 (a1-a5) (3.) Level $;
run;

When I replaced -27 with 27.78 then also the syntax error appeared. Finally when I replaced 27.78 with 27 the program worked fine. Can someone explain that why is the Tip on support.sas.com not working? I'm using SAS 9.2.

[Doc_Duke]

Again, which tip.

If is an expression, the operation works as described. I does fail as you described when you provide a literal.

The problem is that the compiler can't differentiate between, for instance, a subtraction and an infix operator because the context is not clear.

There is a pretty full discussion at
http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/63026/HTML/default/viewer.htm#a000146292.htm

Doc Muhlbaier
Duke