how to avoid unintialized values log message?

[HitmonTran]

Hi,

Since i am concatenating some variables that are not currently present in the current data but will be in future data extract, it is giving me  "uninitialized" log message. How would I prevent this from happening without removing the variables in my program?

program (test3 not present in current data):

var=catx(', ' , test1, test2, test3);

log message:

"Note: Variable test3 is uninitialized."

[Tom · Accepted solution]

Depends partly on how the rest of the program is structured.

One way that would work is to reference the variables in an ARRAY statement.  If they are all of the same type (or at supposed to be) then you could record as:

array x test1-test3 ;
var=catx(', ' , of x[*]);

[ghosh]

Before you use them in formula, you should define them with their max length, for example:

Length test1 test2 test3 $10;