what delimiter should I use for importing this .txt file? Here is the first obs:
SCSchool District of******* W******* High 007
Since you have an infile and input statements to read then it should be relatively easy to use a file statement that looks similar to the infilr and turn
input State $1-2 District $3-20 DistNum $21-35 SchName $36-53 ...
into
put @1 State @3 District @21 Distnum @21 Distnum @36 SchName ....;
The @n tells SAS to put the variable starting at that column. Assuming you haven't done anything to drastically change lengths of the values then you shouldn't have any problem.
The input line you demostarted seems to be without a deleimiter.
Maybe the variables are fixed length. If it is - you need know at what position each variable starts.
Good point. Actually, it is fixed width now that I think about it. I have a data file layout that I used to read it in using an INFILE statement. (see a portion below) Essentially, my task is this: I need to output the file I cleaned up so that it matches the original dirty file. If it doesn't match it, I can't import the results to our data warehouse. Maybe I need to rethink my whole strategy here.
data access;
infile "G:\Departments\Research\test scores\ACCESS\&yr.\raw\SC3701_Summative_Stud_File.txt"
lrecl=32767 dsd missover;
input State $1-2 District $3-20 DistNum $21-35 SchName $36-53 ....;
Since you have an infile and input statements to read then it should be relatively easy to use a file statement that looks similar to the infilr and turn
input State $1-2 District $3-20 DistNum $21-35 SchName $36-53 ...
into
put @1 State @3 District @21 Distnum @21 Distnum @36 SchName ....;
The @n tells SAS to put the variable starting at that column. Assuming you haven't done anything to drastically change lengths of the values then you shouldn't have any problem.
Are you ready for the spotlight? We're accepting content ideas for SAS Innovate 2025 to be held May 6-9 in Orlando, FL. The call is open until September 16. Read more here about why you should contribute and what is in it for you!
Learn how use the CAT functions in SAS to join values from multiple variables into a single value.
Find more tutorials on the SAS Users YouTube channel.
Select SAS Training centers are offering in-person courses. View upcoming courses for: