changing numeric to character

[dolbi18]

Hi, i have to change the type of variable from numeric to character. I've tried several ways, but i always get an error or warning 😞

Variable "x3" is in BEST8. format and SAS uses numeric format, but i need x3 variable to be in character format.

Dear communities, how to do it :D? 

[PeterClemmensen · Accepted solution]

You can not change the type of a variable once it is created. But you can convert a variable and assign it to a new variable like this

data test;
	format x3 best8.;
	x3=100.56;
	x3_char=put(x3, best8.);
run;

proc contents data=test;
run;

[dolbi18]

Thanks 🙂

[PeterClemmensen]

Anytime, glad to help 🙂