String to numeric lopping off last 2 digits

[gsnidow]

Greetings all.  I've got some string data that are numbers left padded with zeros.  In the source DB2 table they are decimal(10,0), but I am getting them from an Oracle database that includes text in the same column, and all the numeric data are zero padded to 10 characters long.  I though I could simply use input, but that is lopping off the right 2 characters.  This is what I am trying...

data _null_ ;

    string = '0123456789' ;

    num = input(string,8.) ;

    put num ;

run ; quit ;

I would expect the value of num to be 123456789, but it is ending up being 1234567.  I'm not sure why this is not working.  Any ideas?  Thank you.

Greg

[gsnidow · Accepted solution]

DOH!  I was thinking that 8. would allow for the greatest number possible, but 10. works.

[ballardw]

Don't forget to count the decimal point when reading decimal values as well.

Reading 1234.567  with 7.3 will also disappoint. (Hint: 1234.56 is 7 characters).

[gsnidow]

So if I'm getting this right, for a 10 digit number, I need to use a numeric variable with length 6., but in the input statement I need to use 10 to specify the number of characters?

[data_null__]

I would not bother to make ANY numeric variable length LT 8.  The W for an INFORMAT should be GE the longest string of digit characters, signs, decimals, commas and dollar signs being read.