concatenating two variable

[souji]

data staff;

JobCategory='FA';

JobLevel='1';

JobCategory=JobCategory||JobLevel;

run;

Q: What is the value of the variable JOBCATEGORY in the output data set?

Ans: FA

My question is , why not FA1. it did not use the below condition like

JobCategory=JobCategory||JobLevel;

please help me to understand this

[SASKiwi · Accepted solution]

The variable JobCategory has a length of only two characters when defined by this statement:

JobCategory='FA';

So it doesn't matter what you try to concatenate on the end because it will always be truncated back to two characters dropping anything beyond that.

[souji]

data Passengers;

if OrigPassengers=. then

OrigPassengers=100;

TransPassengers=100;

OrigPassengers=.;

NonPaying=10;

TotalPassengers=OrigPassengers+TransPassengers;

run;

please make me understand this, why the TotalPassengers is missing numeric value in the output

[ed_sas_member]

Hi @souji 

In you data step, OrigPassengers is a numeric variable (by default, its length is 8).

It is first set to a missing value (.), then to 100 and then to a missing value.

So a the end, when you compute TotalPassengers = OrigPassengers+TransPassengers, you compute  TotalPassengers = . + 100

-> SAS can't add a missing value to 100, so the result is a missing value.

Best,

[souji]

Thank You for the clear explanation

[ed_sas_member]

you're welcome !

[souji]

Can you make me understand this as well please, and what would be the results , here they said 110

data Passengers;

if OrigPassengers= then

OrigPassengers=100;

TransPassengers=100;

OrigPassengers=.;

NonPaying=10;

TotalPassengers= sum (OrigPassengers,TransPassengers );

run;

[ed_sas_member]

Hi @souji 

I believe you mean:

data Passengers;

if OrigPassengers = . then

OrigPassengers=100;

TransPassengers=100;

OrigPassengers=.;

NonPaying=10;

TotalPassengers= sum (OrigPassengers,TransPassengers);

run;

-> in this case, TotalPassengers= sum (OrigPassengers,TransPassengers) will be equivalent to TotalPassengers= sum (.,100).

The result will be 100, because the SUM() function returns the sum of the nonmissing values.

Best,

[souji]

thank you very much

[novinosrin]

Hi @souji 

That's because the intial assignment of JobCategory='FA' assigns a length of 2 bytes and so the concatenated value is truncated to 2 bytes in the output.

To verify, 

proc contents data=staff;
run;

# Variable Type Len

1 JobCategory Char 2
2 JobLevel Char 1

[souji]

thank you very much

[ghosh]

That's because the length is set too 2.  Use a length statement first to assign the variable more space

[souji]

it work like this if

data staff;

length JobCategory $4;

JobCategory='FA';

JobLevel='1';

Job=JobCategory||JobLevel;       /* if I add new variable like Job, then I am getting Job variable value FA1 */

run;

****************

if I give JobCategory=JobCategory||JobLevel; with  length statement , it is not given the JobCategory value  FA1, it is only FA

[souji]

Thank You for explanation

[souji]

Thank You very much