Ok, so I have "solved" the RecordedCount not being loaded, but it throws up a new problem; RecordedCount will only get filled if I match the length of the informat exactly. In the main "read-in" Input statement, something like input @ 12 Thing 18. will work fine, and if the number of characters that make up the numeric value at position 12 is, say, 6 in one line and 12 in the next, both are correctly read in as numbers. However no matter what method of assigning a format to this variable I use, unless I exactly match the informat length to the number of characters which make up the total, it loads blank. so assuming the text in the file says ==================
10,000 "input RecordedCount;" (which SAS help alleges will just assign numeric automatically if it sees a number) results in a blank "input RecordedCount 30.;" - Blank "input @23 RecordedCount comma6.;" - Blank "input(_infile_,COMMA30.);" - Blank "input(_infile_,COMMA6.)" - Blank "input(strip(_infile_),COMMA6.)" - Correct! "input(strip(_infile_),COMMA5.)" - I have a number, but it's truncated. Obviously, RecordedCount might be 10,000 in one file, and 99,999,999,999 in another, and 1 in another. If I'm required to know how many characters are used by the informat, I can't just use Length(strip(_infile_)) to do that... can I?
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