missing value

[Ronein]

Hello

I want to ask please about a missing value in a char var.

In this example there is a missing value in a char var.

Why should we use point (.) symbol and not a blank to represent a missing value?

data tbl;
   length name $ 12;
   input name $ score1 score2;
   datalines;
Riley 1132 1187
Henderson 1015 1102
.    1018  1027
;
Run;

[Kurt_Bremser]

Run it with a blank instead of the dot and look at the log.

[singhsahab]

Hello,

In your case, you can use a blank to represent a missing value for character variable .

For you example , in place of .(dot) if you want to place a space (blank) you can use DSD and DLM options with infile statement. 

data tbl;
   length name $ 12;
   infile datalines dsd dlm='';
   input name $ score1 score2;
   datalines;
Riley 1132 1187
Henderson 1015 1102
 1018 1027
;
Run;