Reading a flat text file in ASCII, fixed length records, fixed-width fields. One field is department name and the word "Café" appears in it. On the records where this happens, INPUT pointer jumps backwards 1 byte and therefore my @xx specs are all off for the remainder of the record and the data gets hosed. Is there an INFILE option or parm that I can use to keep everything lined up? thanks Doug ... View more

I receive Excel files from clients, and these will have varying numbers of variables (columns) each time. After importing to SAS, I wish to automatically determine the number of variables in a dataset so I can set up the index for array processing. I know the SET command has NOBS, but is there nothing similar for number of variables? Thanks! ... View more

A client sent me an ASCII flat text file that looks fine in NOTEPAD and Excel will import w/o issue, but when I read it in SAS using "input" everything blows up because SAS sees '00'X as every other character. Is there an input option to accomodate this? Example of SAS LOG: NOTE: Invalid data for costcenterid in line 2 37-39. NOTE: Invalid data for accountid in line 2 100-113. NOTE: Invalid data for amount in line 2 193-193. RULE:     ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+--- 2   CHAR  .2.0.1.1.-.1.0.-.0.1. .0.0.:.0.0.:.0.0. . . . . .O.c.t. .1.1. .A.c.t. . . .1.2.3.4.5. .     ZONE  0303030302030302030302030303030303030302020202020406070203030204060702020203030303030202     NUMR  020001010D01000D00010000000A00000A000000000000000F03040001010001030400000001020304050000       89  . . . . . .A.l.l.e.g.r.a. .W.r.i.t.e.-.o.f.f. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     ZONE  0202020202040606060607060205070607060206060602020202020202020202020202020202020202020202     NUMR  0000000000010C0C050702010007020904050D0F060600000000000000000000000000000000000000000000      177  . . . . . . . . . . . . .6.7.8.9.9.9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     ZONE  0202020202020202020202020303030303030202020202020202020202020202020202020202020202020202     NUMR  0000000000000000000000000607080909090000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000      265  . . . . . . . . .A.L.L.E.G.R.A. .W.R.I.T.E. .O.F.F. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     ZONE  0202020202020202040404040405040205050405040204040402020202020202020202020202020202020202     NUMR  0000000000000000010C0C05070201000702090405000F060600000000000000000000000000000000000000      353  . . . . . .E.x.p.e.n.s.e. . . . .0...0.0.0.0...     ZONE  0202020202040707060607060202020203020303030300022222222222222222222222222222222222222222     NUMR  0000000000050800050E030500000000000E000000000D000000000000000000000000000000000000000000      441 This is the data pasted from NOTEPAD: 2011-10-01 00:00:00     Oct 11 Act   12345       Allegra Write-off                                  678999                                  ALLEGRA WRITE OFF                        Expense    0.0000 ... View more