Jaap, I am commenting to learn. I tested the agoldma code.  The formats 3. and PD3. work fine all by themselves.  If I understand the link you provided, http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/leforinforref/63324/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n0xnvrbp96w34un1j7fgbfqgz4x5.htm, data written as .pd4 should be read as .pd4.  I wrote my data as .pd3 and read it in as .pd3 and the process worked as expected. When I wrote .pd3 and read as .pd2, the file read in the number "0" not the number "-12".  I am thinking ahead and imagining two files, one created with .pd4 and the other created with .pd3.  How would I build code that would adjust itself to change the format to .pd3 or .pd4 based on the file being read.  My solution is to use macro variables.  I believe that agoldma is trying to build a proc format solution. Data _nulls_ solution is very novel to me.  I have never seen  "invalue inpdthree default=3 max=3 other = [pd3.] ;"  and I have also never seen brackets "[ ]" used in a Proc format. Thank you to all who post Questions and Answers.  Your thoughts and Ideas are priceless and definitely cheaper than taking SAS courses. 37 38 %let thre=3.; 39 %let pdthre=pd3.; 40 data _null_; 41 x=-12; 42 file 'E:\test5.txt'; 43 put @1 x &thre. 44 @4 '*' 45 @5 x &pdthre. 46 @8 '#' 47 ; 48 run; NOTE: The file 'E:\test5.txt' is: Filename=E:\test5.txt, RECFM=V,LRECL=256,File Size (bytes)=0, Last Modified=25Jun2014:07:33:06, Create Time=24Jun2014:08:10:31 NOTE: 1 record was written to the file 'E:\test5.txt'. The minimum record length was 8. The maximum record length was 8. 　 49 50 proc sql; 50 ! drop table work.test5; NOTE: Table WORK.TEST5 has been dropped. 50 ! quit; 　 51 data test5; 52 infile 'E:test5.txt' truncover; 53 input @1 x13 &thre. 54 @4 sep1 $1. 55 @5 x1pd &pdthre. 56 @8 sep2 $1 57 ; 58 run; NOTE: The infile 'E:test5.txt' is: Filename=E:\test5.txt, RECFM=V,LRECL=256,File Size (bytes)=10, Last Modified=25Jun2014:07:33:06, Create Time=24Jun2014:08:10:31 NOTE: 1 record was read from the infile 'E:test5.txt'. The minimum record length was 8. The maximum record length was 8. NOTE: The data set WORK.TEST5 has 1 observations and 4 variables. 　 59 60 proc print data=test5; run; Obs    x13    sep1    x1pd    sep2     1     -12     *             -12      - ... View more

Brilliant.  Thank you.  I did the same thing COBOL style long hand.  You accomplished in 3 lines what I used 10+ lines to do.  ... View more

Hai Kuo, Please educate me on how your elegant code works.   I have never seen your style before. How do the first two lines below work?      cnt+a=0;      _f+a=1;      if _f=1 and a=1 then            output; Obs    Name     A    action    cnt    _f   1    John     0    delete      1     0   2    John     0    delete      2     0   3    John     0    delete      3     0   4    John     0    delete      4     0   5    John     0    delete      5     0   6    John     0    delete      6     0   7    John     0    delete      7     0   8    John     0    delete      8     0   9    John     1    output      8     1 10    John     1    delete      8     2 11    John     1    delete      8     3 12    John     1    delete      8     4 13    John     1    delete      8     5 14    John     1    delete      8     6 15    John     0    delete      9     6 16    John     0    delete     10     6 17    John     0    delete     11     6 18    John     0    delete     12     6 19    David    0    delete      1     0 20    David    0    delete      2     0 21    David    0    delete      3     0 22    David    1    output      3     1 23    David    0    delete      4     1 24    David    0    delete      5     1 25    David    0    delete      6     1 26    David    0    delete      7     1 27    Smith    1    output      0     1 28    Smith    1    delete      0     2 29    Smith    1    delete      0     3 30    Jason    0    delete      1     0 31    Jason    1    output      1     1 32    Jason    0    delete      2     1 33    Jason    0    delete      3     1 34    Jason    1    delete      3     2 35    Jason    0    delete      4     2 ... View more

A proc format will also work.  (not tested) proc format;     value mynum (min=8 max=32)    0 = 0    0 -  1000000 = 1000000       /* 0.00000000......1 to  1000000 */   ............   other = 1000000; run; b=put(A,mynum.); ... View more

Dear agoldma, I played with your code and was unable to break the code to find out the problem nor find documentation to explain how to "format a format".  Essentially you are coding a format to choose which format to use. My workaround is to code a macro that contains the format value I want to apply.    %let frmat=pd3.; data _null_;     x=-12;     file 'E:\test4.txt';     put  @1  x  3.          @4 '*'          @5  x  &frmat.          ; run; proc sql; drop table work.test3a; quit; data test3a;    infile 'E:test4.txt';    input @1 x13 3.          @4 sep1 $1.          @5 x1pd &frmat.          ; run; proc print data=test3a; run; ... View more

What are the values in your .txt file?  My txt file shows "-12 €  ".  data _null_;     x=-12;     file 'E:\test3.txt';     put  @1  x  3.          @5  x  pd3.          ; run; ... View more

I did not test this: data have;   input  value 9.;      length wantval 8; format wantval z6.;     wantval = substr((put(value,9.)),(length(put(value,9.)) - 6),6);   datalines; 40047915           40047916 40047917 400032724 400032725 400032726 ; run; I did test this and this works: proc sql; drop table work.have; quit; data have;      input  value 9.;      length wantval  8 ; format wantval  z6.;     if substr(strip(put(value,9.)),1,1) = '4' then do;        wantval = substr((strip(put(value,9.))),((length(strip(put(value,9.))) - 6) + 1),6);     end;    datalines; 40047915           40047916 40047917 400032724 400032725 400032726 ; proc print data=work.have; run; Message was edited by: James Willis ... View more

The code below will handle a numeric starting value. data have;   input  value $9.;   length wantval 8; format wantval z6.; if length(value) = 8 then wantval = input(substr(value,3,6),8.) ; if length(value) = 9 then wantval = input(substr(value,4,6),8.) ;   datalines; 40047915           40047916 40047917 400032724 400032725 400032726 ; run; proc print data=have; run; This works if your original input value has to remain as a number.  The length function only works on character variables. data have;   input  value 9. valuec $9.;   length wantval 8; format wantval z6.; valuec = put(value,9.); if length(valuec) = 8 then wantval = input(substr(valuec,3,6),8.) ; if length(valuec) = 9 then wantval = input(substr(valuec,4,6),8.) ;   datalines; 40047915           40047916 40047917 400032724 400032725 400032726 ; run; proc print data=have; run; Message was edited by: James Willis  ... View more