SASman1441 How are you doing with your problem so far? Like to post some code for review? Arthur While I agree with you in the value of reading the documentation and trying; that's how I learned most of SAS; I think that if this was a homework example for someone just starting out it was a bit much. Wouldn't you set an example with some nicely behaved fixed length or space delimited data while the student wrestled with formats and remembering to terminate with semicolons? I tend to think there are three kinds of knowledge about SAS Important features that you need to understand fully and know how to use without assistance Features that you don't need to remember, you just need to know where to look them up Syntax and other bits that you need occasionally but can just cut and paste into a solution I started off pre version 5 on MVS, as it was then. JCL was something I needed to get the job done, but it was enough to know how to copy, paste and modify while I wrestled with the real problems of wrestling with data analysis (Shock horror: I still do this when necessary). I tend to view SAS Infile syntax in that light. Confession: I usually use the Windows SAS Import wizard for delimited data, then press F4 to retrieve the code and clean up the formats. Sometimes wrestling with a problem can be self defeating. Some time ago I spent many person hours trying to wrap single quotes around a resolved macro variable, exploring all the macro quoting functions, without success, and I gave up. Eventually I saw a partial solution in someone else's code (ie %str(%')&example%str(%')) and I was able to adapt that to my requirements. My point is that people can have blockages over stuff that does not have an intuitive solution, and getting them over that hurdle so they can do something useful is worthwhile. Richard In Oz
... View more
