Create and apply either a format or informat. You have to provide more info. Are you just trying to do something like: proc format;   invalue mtime   'na'=1   'bo'=2   'so'=3   'zd'=4   ; run; data new;   informat time mtime.;   input time m2-m3; datalines; na 4 56 bo 2 45 so 4 30 zd 1 55 ; run; ... View more

i finally came across the answer. data a; infile 'C:\Users\___\Desktop\test1.txt'  truncover; input info $30.; name = put(reverse(substr(reverse(info),findc(reverse(info),'F''M')+1)),$8.); sex = put(substr(info, length(name) +1, 1),$1.); age = input(substr(info, anydigit(info),2),2.); ht=substr(info, sum(length(name),4), 4); if ht>=100 then ht=substr(ht,1,2); height=input(ht,4.); weight= input(substr(info, sum(length(name),4,length(ht))),5.); drop info ht; run; ... View more