negative values not displaying during PROC PRINT

[eileencant]

I am using SAS Studio. On my very first SAS homework, I have to manually enter the data. The first column is a non-numeric indicator ($); the second column contains both positive and negative values. After manually entering the code below, I ran the code to inspect the data and the negative values are showing up as *

Code:

DATA a;
INPUT var1 $ 1 var2 3;
DATALINES;
1 0
1 -3
1 -2
1 -1
2 1
2 2
2 1
2 0
3 10
3 12
3 8
3 5
4 3
4 2
4 3
4 4
;
RUN;
QUIT;

Screen shot of data view attached. Many thanks. 

[mkeintz]

Look at your log before you look at your data display.  When I run your code, the log shows:

1378  DATA a;
1379  INPUT var1 $ 1 var2 3;
1380  DATALINES;

NOTE: Invalid data for var2 in line 1382 3-3.
RULE:       ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+----9----+----0
1382        1 -3
var1=1 var2=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=2
NOTE: Invalid data for var2 in line 1383 3-3.
RULE:       ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+----9----+----0
1383        1 -2
var1=1 var2=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=3
NOTE: Invalid data for var2 in line 1384 3-3.
1384        1 -1
var1=1 var2=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=4
NOTE: The data set WORK.A has 16 observations and 2 variables.

Interpret the NOTE on the log, which says invalid data for VAR2 in line xxx 3-3  (columns 3 through 3).  Look at column 3 in the RULE line and DATA line that follow.

[SASKiwi]

Your INPUT statement is incorrect - check your SAS log for the messages regarding invalid data. Try this:

INPUT var1 $ var2;

[eileencant]

Thanks, everyone. I don't know enough SAS to interpret your messages, but I very much appreciate your time and I eventually got it to work by adding more columns. Here is what worked and I truly appreciate your help as a SAS novice. (I don't even know if the "version" I am using is "SAS Studio" or "SAS UE" but I should have mentioned this. New code:

DATA a;
INPUT var1 $ 1 var2 3-5;
DATALINES;
1 +00
1 -03
1 -02
1 -01
2 +01
2 +02
2 +01
2 +00
3 +10
3 +12
3 +08
3 +05
4 +03
4 +02
4 +03
4 +04
;
RUN;
QUIT;

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

---

@eileencant wrote:

Thanks, everyone. I don't know enough SAS to interpret your messages, but I very much appreciate your time and I eventually got it to work by adding more columns. Here is what worked and I truly appreciate your help as a SAS novice. (I don't even know if the "version" I am using is "SAS Studio" or "SAS UE" but I should have mentioned this. New code:

DATA a;
INPUT var1 $ 1 var2 3-5;

When you put digits after a variable on an input statement then you telling a explicit column to read from. So when you said

input var1 $ 1 var2 3;

you said Var2 exists only in column 3. Without the $ the variable is numeric. So when the - sign was encountered that was all SAS was allowed to read and a negative sign needs at least one other digit.

This style of reading values is called "Fixed Column" as you read from only the indicated column(s) for each variable. When you added 3-5 that mean you were reading from columns 3 to 5. the + and leading 0 weren't need.

Another form of input is called "List" and assumes that values are separated by one or more characters defaulting to spaces.

So

input var1 $ var2;

says the first variable is expected to be 1 to 8 characters (the default for $, you need to provide more info if reading longer) character then after one or more spaces look for numeric value (length basically irrelevant though issues with more than 15 positions arise).

[eileencant]

Thank you so much. This is the explanation I was lacking. I appreciate your time and clarity.

[ballardw]

Read you LOG.

You would have seen something like:

NOTE: Invalid data for var2 in line 1040 3-3.
RULE:       ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+-
1040        1 -3
var1=1 var2=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=2
NOTE: Invalid data for var2 in line 1041 3-3.
1041        1 -2
var1=1 var2=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=3
NOTE: Invalid data for var2 in line 1042 3-3.
1042        1 -1
var1=1 var2=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=4
NOTE: The data set USER.A has 16 observations and 2 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.02 seconds
      cpu time            0.01 seconds

What was your purpose for having the 3 at the end of the input statement? It is really a good idea to attempt to limit the length of numeric variables as the storage for numeric values is different than for character.

Try:

DATA a;
INPUT var1 $1.  var2 ;
DATALINES;
1 0
1 -3
1 -2
1 -1
2 1
2 2
2 1
2 0
3 10
3 12
3 8
3 5
4 3
4 2
4 3
4 4
;
RUN;

and see if that behaves better.

You attempted to put a value into less space than needed to store it.

Significant Digits and Largest Integer by Length for SAS Variables under Windows

Length in Bytes	Largest Integer Represented Exactly	Exponential Notation	Significant Digits Retained
3	8,192	213	3
4	2,097,152	221	6
5	536,870,912	229	8
6	137,438,953,472	237	11
7	35,184,372,088,832	245	13
8	9,007,199,254,740,992	253	15

Some variation in operating systems but the negative values require more storage than the simple integers.