difference between absolute and relative column pointer control

[deleted_user]

Hello everyone,
Could any one explain me the difference between absolute column pointer control and relative column pointer control?
For ex:
data example1;
input item $10. @17 total;
datalines;
pencil 20
pen 12
eraser 17
;
run;

data example2;
input item $10. +17 total;
datalines;
pencil 20
pen 12
eraser 17
;
run;

Thanks,
Positive soul

[sbb]

Absolute column pointer is an offset in your input data/record buffer, relative to @1 being column 1.

Relative column pointer is an increment (either plus or minus) from the current pointer position in the input data/record buffer, that being +10 in the INPUT statement below is at pointer location 25, for example:

INPUT @5 myvar1 $char10. +10 myvar2 $char5. ;

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

Some SAS DOC links on this topic from SAS support website http://support.sas.com/ listed below:

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/basess/58133/HTML/default/a002645710.htm

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/61724/HTML/default/a000146292.htm