Hi,
I am creating a SAS table in which one of the fields has to holds a huge string.
Following is my table (TABLE name = MKPLOGS4):
OBS______RNID________DESCTEXT
__________-------________-----------------
1_________123_________This is some text which is part of the record. I want this to appear
2_________123_________concatenated kinda like concat_group() from MYSQL but for some reason
3_________123_________SAS does not have such functionality. Now I am having trouble with
4_________123_________String concatenation.
5_________124_________Hi there old friend of mine, hope you are enjoying the weather
6_________124_________Are you sure this is not your jacket, okay then. Will give charity.
.
.
.
and I have to get a Table similar to this (table name = MKPLOGSA):
OBS____RNID_________DESCTEXT
________-------_________-----------------
1_______123__________This is some text which is part of the record. I want this to appear concatenated kinda like concat_group() from MYSQL but for some reason SAS does not have such functionality. Now I am having trouble with String concatenation.
2_______124__________Hi, there old friend of mine, hope you are enjoying the weather Are you sure this is not your jacket, okay then. Will give charity.
.
.
.
So, after trying unsuccessfully with SQL, I came up with the following SAS code (please note I am very new at SAS):
DATA MKPLOGSA (DROP = DTEMP DTEXT);
SET MKPLOGS4;
BY RNID;
RETAIN DTEXT;
IF FIRST.RNID THEN
DO;
DTEXT = DESCTEXT;
DELETE;
END;
ELSE IF LAST.RNID THEN
DO;
DTEMP = CATX(' ',DTEXT,DESCTEXT);
DESCTEXT = DTEMP;
END;
ELSE
DO;
DTEMP = CATX(' ',DTEXT,DESCTEXT);
DTEXT = DTEMP;
DELETE;
END;
The SAS log is producing this warning message:
WARNING: IN A CALL TO THE CATX FUNCTION, THE BUFFER ALLOCATED
FOR THE RESULT WAS NOT LONG ENOUGH TO CONTAIN THE CONCATENATION
OF ALL THE ARGUMENTS. THE CORRECT RESULT WOULD CONTAIN 229 CHARACTERS,
BUT THE ACTUAL RESULT MAY EITHER BE TRUNCATED TO 200 CHARACTER(S) OR
BE COMPLETELY BLANK, DEPENDING ON THE CALLING ENVIRONMENT. THE
FOLLOWING NOTE INDICATES THE LEFT-MOST ARGUMENT THAT CAUSED TRUNCATION.
Followed by the message (for the SAS data step I posted here):
NOTE: ARGUMENT 3 TO FUNCTION CATX AT LINE 100 COLUMN 15 IS INVALID.
Please note that in my sample data table (MKPLOGS4), each line of string for the field DESCTEXT can be upto 116 characters and there is no limit as to how many lines of description text/recordID.
The output I am getting has only the last line of description:
OBS___RNID____DESCTEXT
_______-------____-----------------
1______123_____String concatenation.
2______124_____Are you sure this is not your jacket, okay then. Will give charity.
.
.
.
I have the following questions:
. is there something wrong with my code?
. is there a limit to SAS string concatenation? Can I override this? If yes, please provide code.
If you have a suggestion, I would really appreciate if you can post your version of code.
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