Why answer is this?

[mohitraj4u]

Given the text file COLORS.TXT:

----+----1----+----2----+----

RED    ORANGE  YELLOW  GREEN

BLUE   INDIGO    PURPLE   VIOLET

CYAN   WHITE     FUCSIA    BLACK

GRAY   BROWN   PINK        MAGENTA

The following SAS program is submitted:

data WORK.COLORS;

    infile 'COLORS.TXT';

    input @1 Var1 $ @8 Var2 $ @;

    input @1 Var3 $ @8 Var4 $ @;
run;

What will the data set WORK.COLORS contain?

Answer:

Var1         Var2               Var3        Var4
------          ------              ------         ------
RED         ORANGE      RED         ORANGE
BLUE        INDIGO        BLUE       INDIGO
CYAN        WHITE         CYAN       WHITE
GRAY        BROWN       GRAY       BROWN

[Kurt_Bremser]

The trailing @ holds the record pointer in the current line, so the second input statement re-reads positions 1 and 8; the third and fourth column of the infile are therefore never read.

[Reeza]

@Look at the INPUT statement. You are using both @ to denote the position of where to start reading and a trailing @. 

@the trailing @ keeps the pointer at the line for that data step iteration. At the next data step iteration it moves on. Check the behaviour by running the code with and without the trailing @. 

    input @1 Var1 $ @8 @Var2 $ @; <- reads var1 starting from position1, var2 from position 8 and holds the line.

    input @1 Var3 $ @8@ Var4 $ @; <- reads var3 starting from position1, var4 from position 8  and holds the line. The run allows it to move to a new line. 

---

@mohitraj4u wrote:

Given the text file COLORS.TXT:

----+----1----+----2----+----

RED    ORANGE  YELLOW  GREEN

BLUE   INDIGO    PURPLE   VIOLET

CYAN   WHITE     FUCSIA    BLACK

GRAY   BROWN   PINK        MAGENTA

The following SAS program is submitted:

data WORK.COLORS;

    infile 'COLORS.TXT';

@    input @1 Var1 $ @8 Var2 $ @;

@    input @1 Var3 $ @8 Var4 $ @;
run;

What will the data set WORK.COLORS contain?

Answer:

Var1         Var2               Var3        Var4
------          ------              ------         ------
RED         ORANGE      RED         ORANGE
BLUE        INDIGO        BLUE       INDIGO
CYAN        WHITE         CYAN       WHITE
GRAY        BROWN       GRAY       BROWN

---