The Length of the Result In a DATA step, most variables have a fixed length. If the word returned by the SCAN function is assigned to a variable that has a fixed length greater than the length of the returned word, then the value of that variable will be padded with blanks. Macro variables have varying lengths and are not padded with blanks. The maximum length of the word that is returned by the SCAN function depends on the environment from which it is called: In a DATA step, if the SCAN function returns a value to a variable that has not yet been given a length, then that variable is given a length of 200 characters. If you need the SCAN function to assign to a variable a word that is longer than 200 characters, then you should explicitly specify the length of that variable. If you use the SCAN function in an expression that contains operators or other functions, a word that is returned by the SCAN function can have a length of up to 32,767 characters, except in a WHERE clause. In that case, the maximum length is 200 characters. In the SQL procedure, or in a WHERE clause in any procedure, the maximum length of a word that is returned by the SCAN function is 200 characters. ... View more

The answer is NO. RTM--> The INTO clause for the SELECT statement can assign the result of a calculation or the value of a data column (variable) to a macro variable. If the macro variable does not exist, INTO creates it. You can check the PROC SQL macro variable SQLOBS to see the number of rows (observations) produced by a SELECT statement. The INTO clause can be used only in the outer query of a SELECT statement and not in a subquery. The INTO clause cannot be used when you are creating a table (CREATE TABLE) or a view (CREATE VIEW). Macro variables created with INTO follow the scoping rules for the %LET statement.  Values assigned by the INTO clause use the BEST8. format. ... View more

Nice question. Will this illustration help? I'm learning too. I'll await better examples with you 🙂     data have; input col1 & $ col2 dollar5.; datalines; Cost 1     $100 Cost 2     $200 Cost 3     $300 ; /*long to wide*/ proc transpose data=have out=wide ;     id col1;     var col2; run; /*wide to long*/ proc transpose data=wide out=long ;     id _name_;   run; ... View more

data have; input var $50.; datalines; finance_data_scores_income.rpt finance_scores.rpt ;   data want; set have; k= index(var,'_scores.rpt'); if k>0 then substr(var,k)=' '; else do; k=index(var,'_scores_income.rpt'); if k>0 then substr(var,k)=' '; end; drop k; run; ... View more