Cynthia, Thank you for your reply. I'm not sure how the output will happen but there is no actual way to do it in sas in a data step other then using multiple PUT statements? In the past in other languages I could use char(10) to put linefeeds within my string/char columns there isn't an equivalent in SAS? Thank you again for your help ... View more

Daniel & Scott, Thank you to both of you for your suggestions. Scott I know for this zip field it is only 5 characters long or less. I have a separate column for the plus4 part of a zip code. I used Flip's suggestion and got it to work but will have to revisit this situation more then likely in a day or so and find out why the source even has non numeric characters. Thanks to everyone for all your help Jerry ... View more

Flip, Thank you so much that helped. Jerry ... View more

Thanks guys, I'm still learning and this code was done by someone else so I was trying to clean it up and figure out how to make it better. Thank you both for the help Jerry ... View more

Scott, Here is the info you mentioned 986 data step2(keep=AddType) ; 987 length AddType 8. ; 988 set step1 ; 989 990 AddType=input(MType, best.) ; 991 run ; NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by: (Line):(Column). 990:15 NOTE: There were 31 observations read from the data set WORK.STEP1. NOTE: The data set WORK.STEP2 has 31 observations and 1 variables. NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time): real time 0.00 seconds cpu time 0.00 seconds Data Set Page Size 4096 Number of Data Set Pages 1 First Data Page 1 Max Obs per Page 501 Obs in First Data Page 31 Number of Data Set Repairs 0 File Name C:\SAS\step1.sas7bdat Release Created 9.0101M3 Host Created XP_PRO Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes # Variable Type Len 1 MType Num 8 ... View more

Linus H, Thank you for your help That last sentence about the functions in the where clause opened my eyes. I did the upcase for these tables when I created them so I didn't have to do it in the join. The time when from 24 minutes to under 3. Thank you so much Jerry ... View more

Thanks guys for the replies. Everything with this query runs locally. What i'm doing is taking a distinct list of address. I'm adding an ID column to this distinct list then I want to go back and update each row with it's corresponding ID. With a regular left join how would I do the update part of it? Thanks again for your help Jerry ... View more

Thank You both for your help I'm going to try the input statement and see how that works. The ordering is because the tables go to users and they expect the id column first and then the name columns and the rest of the stuff. Just out of curiosity can I do this with attrib? I'm only asking to see if it's possible and what the difference is between it and the length statement. Thanks for your patience jerry ... View more

_null_, Thank you for the reply. I was instructed my the powers that be to look into the Attrib and Length statements and not use retain. I was told there are other issues that could arise from using retain. I'm in a big time crunch to fully invetigate. I do know the type and length of all my columns I'm just not sure at how to get it going without screwing up my merge statement. Thank you again for your help and any other advice is greatly appreciated. Jerry ... View more