formatting disappears after concatenating

[K_S]

I used catx to concatenate a few formatted variables, but after concatenating, the formats disappeared.

Any way to keep the formats when concatenating?

[PaigeMiller · Accepted solution]

CATX ( and all of the CAT... functions) work on the unformatted values of the variables.

If you want to maintain the formatting, you would have to use the proper PUT function

Example

catx('-',put(date,yymmdd10.), put(time,time8.),put(dollars,dollar18.2))

[Tom]

Use PUT() or VVALUE() function calls instead of just the raw variable names.

long_string=cats(var1,vvalue(var2),put(var3,yymmdd10.));