What does format find $15 mean in SAS?

[GN0001]

Hello team,

What does format find $15. mean in SAS?

Please advise me.

Regards,

blue blue

[Reeza]

Did you try looking it up in the documentation? What did it say?

[GN0001]

Hello team,

I searched for it and I couldn't find it.

Regards,

blueblue

[Kurt_Bremser]

If a word appears at the beginning of a data step statement without a following equal sign, then it has to be a Data Step Statement.

Bookmark the link, and use it as a starting point for similar inquiries.

[Kurt_Bremser]

Please post the code where it is used, so we can explain it for you in context.

[GN0001]

data out.mydata;
merge thisdata(in=a) thatdata(in=b);
by hkey;
format find $15.;
if a and b then Find = 'Both';
if a and not b then Find = 'not_in_thisdata'
if a then output;
run;

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

format find $15.;

This is a FORMAT Statement, and it assigns the $15. format to the variable find.

If this variable is not present in any of the input datasets, it will be defined as character with a length of 15.

If the goal is to actually define the variable as mentioned above, a LENGTH statement would be more appropriate.