Greetings: Trying out an example from Chapter 20 of SAS Certification Prep Guide, don't know why I could not read in the second observation. I'll copy the raw data and the codes below. It's hard not to feel doomed when an example from the book does not run. I must have done something wrong. Then I tried to modify the code. When the modified code finally worked, I was still not sure. Thank you for any suggestions! Raw data: Lee Athnos 1215 Raintree Circle Phoenix AZ 85044 Heidie Baker 1751 Diehl Road Vienna VA 22124 Code in the book: Data work.Address; infile Example; input FirstName $ LastName $ / Address $ 1 - 20 / City & $10. State$ Zip$; run; proc print data=work.address; run; Result: The second observation is missing. From the log message, I guess the problem comes from a shorter address in the second observation. But I thought the column input (Address $ 1 - 20) should have taken care of this problem. ? SAS log message: NOTE: LOST CARD. FirstName=Heidie LastName=Baker Address=Vienna VA 22124 City= State= Zip= _ERROR_=1 _N_=2 NOTE: 6 records were read from the infile EXAMPLE. The minimum record length was 10. The maximum record length was 20. NOTE: SAS went to a new line when INPUT statement reached past the end of a line. NOTE: The data set WORK.ADDRESS has 1 observations and 6 variables. The next twist: I tried this modified list input approach below and it worked. I'm puzzled. I thought & only works if the raw data values are separated by two or more consecutive blanks. The address lines in this case do not have them. Data work.Address; infile Example; input FirstName $ LastName $ / Address & $20. / City & $10. State$ Zip$; run; proc print data=work.address; run; ... View more

Greetings: Got confused here while learning how informat works in reading raw data files. Could any expert give a hint? Raw data in a txt file: NewYork 12 LA 24 Here is what I tried first. data work.ny; infile ny; input city $7. visit; run; This landed me with only the first row plus an error message: SAS went to a new line when INPUT statement reached past the end of a line. Could someone help me to understand why would SAS reach past the end of the first line at all? I know if "LA" is "Seattle" (a longer value), my code will work fine so I don't think the first ob is the problem. To stop SAS reaching past the end, I tried MISSOVER. This did bring in a second row with values missing. In the end, I had to use a colon modifier. My SAS book says "The informat in modified list input determines only the length of the variable, not the number of columns that are read. " But in this case if I don't use an informat for city, the original code will work fine so I'm puzzled. Thank you for your time! ... View more

Hi Experts: What to do when you have to define a new variable's length in a data step but don't want it to be the first variable in the new dataset? In the example below, I don't want State to be the first variable. But I don't really know how to move it to be after address2 or move it to be the last variable. (I guess I could define every variable in the Length statement but what if there are many variables in the dataset?) Thank you! Data work.talent2; Length State $ 3; Set sasuser.talent(obs=5); State=scan(address2,2,','); Run; Proc print data=work.talent2; Run; ... View more

Experts: Do you have suggestions for beginners on how to remember where a statement could (or should not) be used? I have no trouble following along the beginning level SAS training courses which cover some basic statements. But when I write the codes by myself, I often forget that I can not use drop / keep statements in Proc steps or I could not use class statement in Proc print. I know if I look up each statement, Help explains where it is valid at a high level but I'm hoping for some sort of summary for commonly used statements or any tips on how to remember the details. Thank you! ... View more