how to read the csv file?

[Reeza]

What happens if you specify an informat for your character variables instead of using a LENGTH statement.

[tianerhu]

I need to use length statement ,not use 'informat name $ 16' , the former is correct , and the latter is wrong. I don't know why, just judge it according to the output.

[tianerhu]

You are right. the length is not enough.

[SASKiwi]

Please try this. You need INFORMATs for your character variables too as they are longer than 8 characters.

data ABC;
  infile 'C:\Users\liaodong\Documents\My SAS Files\prep guide\base\practice data\cert\new_hires.csv' dlm = ',' dsd firstobs=2;
  informat name $17. company country $30. hire_date date_of_birth mmddyy10.;
  format hire_date date_of_birth mmddyy10.;
  input  name $ hire_date company $ country $ date_of_birth;
run;

[tianerhu]

That's right, thank you for your help.

[tianerhu]

wait, the output of your code is wrong .

[ballardw]

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@tianerhu wrote:

notice : there are no quotation mark around values of the name variable , this is the key point why this question is hard to code .

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With a delimited text file the quotes around a name would only be needed if the delimiter was part of the value such as the comma in "Smith, John" . Then the quotes work with the DSD option. The DSD, among other things, says "don't read delimiters within quotes".

[tianerhu]

Thank you for your help.