Replace Numeric Nulls with a Space

[JMiraglia]

Hello -

I am currently working with a data set that merges multiple Oracle Databases and CSVs into one .xls. 

In the data set, there exist both character and numeric variables. What I would like to do is replace all the "." in the numeric values to a blank "". 

The reason why I am doing this is because I have had a lot of issues with Tableau reading the "." as 0s, causing a lot of issues. When I manually make them a blank in the outputted .xls, this issues is avoided. 

I have been looking on the forums for a little while and I cannot seem to find the answer that matches my request clearly - if you know of one, please let me know. 

Let me know if I need to clarify anything. 

Thanks,

Jeremy

[Patrick · Accepted solution]

@JMiraglia

Use OPTIONS MISSING=' '; at the beginning of your job. If this works will depend on the details of what you're doing but it's certainly worth a try.

[JMiraglia]

This worked! Thank you so much!

[ballardw]

How do you create the xls? Any way @Patrick's solution immediately before whatever export/proc you use should work.

Also Tableau supports SAS datasets directly so you might avoid an unneeded step with one that may well know how to understand "missing" that XLS (not even XLSX???) doesn't.