You can get that NOTE when the value generated by CATS() is too long for the target variable. But normally you also get another more descriptive WARNING message .
1 data test;
2 length x $5 y $10;
3 x='12345';
4 y=cats(x,x,x,x,x);
5 run;
WARNING: In a call to the CATS function, the buffer allocated for the result was not long enough to contain the concatenation of
all the arguments. The correct result would contain 25 characters, but the actual result might either be truncated to 10
character(s) or be completely blank, depending on the calling environment. The following note indicates the left-most
argument that caused truncation.
NOTE: Argument 3 to function CATS('12345','12345','12345','12345','12345') at line 4 column 5 is invalid.
x=12345 y= _ERROR_=1 _N_=1
NOTE: The data set WORK.TEST has 1 observations and 2 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.02 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds
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